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HORiE LUCAN.E. 



PRINTED BY BAI.LANTYNE AND COMPANY 
EDINBURGH AND LONDON 



HORiE LUCAM: 

A BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE, 

DESCRIPTIVE AND LITERARY. 



BY 



HENRY SAMUEL BAYNES, 

AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF CLAUDE BROUSSON, DOCTOR OF LAWS AND ADVOCATE <n 
PARLIAMENT, AFTERWARDS EVANGELIST OF THE DESERT. AND MARTYR." 



" What thanks sufficient, or what recompense 
Equal have I to render thee, divine 
Historian, who thus largely hast allay'd 
The thirst I had of knowledge, and vouchsafed 
This friendly condescension to relate 
Things else by me unsearchable." 

Paradise Lost, vii'. 5-10. 



LONDON: 
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, & DYER. 

1870. 

[All tights reserved.] 



.33 



PREFACE. 



In tlie books of Holy Scripture are treasures inex- 
haustible by the most diligent research. Already are 
treatises on biblical topics so numerous, that no cata- 
logues do or can comprise all their titles. And when 
as many more shall have been published, there will 
still remain incitements for the exercise of every mind 
disposed towards the study of such topics, capable of 
prosecuting reflection intent and persevering; and 
also room for every intelligent exposition of the 
student's gains. In the province of Revelation, as 
of nature, the works of the Lord are great, and invite 
the study of all them that take pleasure therein. 

The subject chosen for investigation in the follow- 
ing pages is one of profound interest. Next to the life 
and epistles of St Paul, the life and literature of St 
Luke afford the most ample scope for the historian's 
pen of any New Testament subject, excepting the 
supreme subject of all. A writer of the fourth portion 



vi PREFACE. 

of the New Testament ; the chief of the companions of 
St Paul, and the most fruitful of all his fellow-labour- 
ers in planting Christianity in Asia Minor and Europe , 
the first historian of the Churches of Christ, who him- 
self occupied a large share in their history ; and whose 
writings seem to us, on reading them, like listening to 
the voice of a familiar friend ; that of this benefactor 
there exists no separately-issued biography appears 
remarkable ; all that is to be found concerning him 
being notices contained in the notes of expositors, in 
the several lives of the Apostles and Evangelists, in 
dictionaries of the Bible, and in occasional articles 
published in periodicals. And how vague and contra- 
dictory are these in their statements, is too well known 
to the student. 

A resolve to examine carefully the question of Luke's 
identity was undertaken by the writer as a biblical 
exercise, and from the conclusion acquired by that 
argument, it was resolved to pursue it in its biogra- 
phical sequences. Henceforward, therefore, various 
intervals of his leisure, extending over twelve years, 
were devoted to an investigation of particulars calcu- 
lated to accomplish his object. 

It was a lament of a celebrated author, that there 
was " a deficiency of demonstrative writing." And it 
is still a grief that many are the essays and exposi- 



PRE FA CE. vii 

tions issued, which, through defect or design, serve 
more for guides to doubt than aids to persuasion. 

The only attempt that has been made (known to the 
present writer) to treat Luke's biography by deduc- 
tions and arguments of a uniformly definite character 
consists of a series of five papers comprised in a volume 
entitled " Fragments" forming a supplement to an edi- 
tion of Calmet's " Dictionary of the Bible," edited and 
published by Charles Taylor in the year 1800. In that 
volume those papers seem to have lain as buried until 
recognised by Dr Edward Robinson, the explorer of 
Palestine, who incorporated the essence of them into 
an edition of Calmet's Dictionary edited by him, 
and published at Boston in America in 1838. Charles 
Taylor was a pioneer of the host of biblical critics 
of the present century in this country. He died in 
1821. He was elder brother of the Rev. Isaac Taylor 
of Ongar, and therefore uncle of Jane and Anne, and 
of the late Isaac Taylor, author of several important 
works. 

In the following chapters consistency of design and 
execution is maintained at least. Proceeding in an 
unfrequented path, and often upon disputed grounds, 
controversies intercept the progress, and several are 
the encounters that are required to be made with 
parties holding adverse positions. At the first few 



viii PREFACE. 

steps, it was thought that the contests would have been 
with few others, save some of the ghosts of tradition. 
But the case proved otherwise, and there has been 
found more to oppose in the opinions of recent and 
contemporary than in older authors, some of the latter 
proving the writer's potent allies. These contests 
have been unavoidable. If the writer had succumbed 
before adverse parties, his conduct had appeared cour- 
teous to them ; but by evading the dispute he would 
have failed in loyalty to truth. Concerning this peril 
of authorship Bengel has said, " If the student's 
attention respect the things to be advanced, so that he 
will not suffer himself to be influenced by respect of 
persons, it will be impossible for him to avoid giving 
offence in one way or another " (" Life of Bengel," p. 
260). 

And here all kindred is disowned with that purely 
speculative ingenuity which, exercised upon sacred 
subjects, is technically called ' advanced criticism ; ' 
and which seems to signify with those who use the 
term an advance into the region of graduated unbelief 
concerning the authenticity of the books of Holy 
Scripture, and the integrity of the several penmen 
thereof, and concerning the essential divinity of Jesus 
Christ. 

Christians were first called disciples and believers, 



PREFACE. ix 

persons, as the terras declare, widely distinct from 
sceptics, by whom Christian believers are taunted 
with being " Religious Conservatives , who in all ages 
cling to the letter without comprehending the spirit 
of the Bible" {Westminster Review, July 1866, p. 
85). Than the conservation of the literal Bible there 
cannot be a more sacred trust ; and for understanding 
it there is no more undeniable canon than that u the 
Bible is its own best interpreter." Much has been 
clone to illustrate the letter of the Bible by the colla- 
tion of early copies, by philology, by history, by 
chronology, by geography, by a study of the Eastern 
manners and mind, and by biography. By the added 
light of these, the student possesses in the Bible a 
perennial fountain of divine intelligence. But to 
comprehend the spirit of the Bible belongs to sim- 
plicity, and to share its benefits belongs to faith. 

In sympathy with the principles revived by the 
reverend confessors and martyrs in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and maintained by the cloud of witnesses who, 
in the seventeenth century, were despoiled of their 
estates, irnmured in dungeons, or doomed to the gal- 
leys, or murdered, or driven from their homes into 
exile, the writer makes no other allusion than this to 
his ecclesiastical fellowship. Occupied with the his- 
tory of the Primitive Churches, he here shuts himself 



x PREFACE. 

up to those with which their first historian was inter- 
ested by personal or other relations. 

Repudiating the dark dogma that refuses to whom- 
soever the right of private judgment upon divinely- 
revealed topics, and as being adapted to the aim of 
his present undertaking, he may say, in the words of 
an Evangelist whose Life he wrote several years ago, 
" I think I have a right to labour as my conscience 
dictates, and according to the measure of faith granted 
to me. I acknowledge that my natural infirmities 
cannot fail to appear ; nevertheless, it is my constant 
aim that all that I can do, and all that I can write, 
may be conformable to the Word of Grod — my only 
rule" (" Claude Brousson," p. 91). 

Speaking of sustained endeavours, Baron Denon 
has said, " He who is in constant pursuit of any 
object, acquires from thence an ability to attain his 
aim." Whatever may be the judgment that shall be 
passed respecting the execution of the present work, 
the writer is persuaded that he has so far accomplished 
his purpose, that his pages present for the first time 
a reasonable arrangement of the facts of Luke's his- 
tory, and afford for the first time, a correction of 
several venerable inaccuracies concerning it. 

For the literary illustration of this Biography the 
writer has possessed a peculiar advantage. Pursuing 



PREFACE. xi 

the vocation of a librarian, besides the works to which 
his bibliographical knowledge directed him, numerous 
were those works, both English and foreign, which, 
passing through his hands, would not otherwise have 
been consulted, but which sometimes supplied im- 
portant materials or suggestions. 

But research and observation must have an end. 
And now arrived at a time of life in which what 
remains to be done should be done promptly, he com- 
mits his studies to the press, entertaining the wish 
that the reader may derive as much pleasure in a con- 
templation of the portraiture set before him, as hath 
been enjoyed gratification by the writer in the pro- 
cess of its development. 

London, April 30, 1870. 



ERRATUM. 

At page 72, last line, read a.d. 48. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER T. 

PAGK 
THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY, ..... 1 

CHAPTER II. 

ST LUKE A CYRENIAN, ...... 11 

CHAPTER III. 

ST LUKE A GENTILE, ...... 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

ST LUKE A PHYSICIAN. ...... 35 

CHAPTER V. 

ST LUKE IN JERUSALEM, ...... 45 

CHAPTER VI. 

st luke's researches in Palestine, . . . .54 

CHAPTER VII. 

ST luke's relation with the acts of the apostles — The 

First Period ...... 70 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

st luke's relation with the acts of the apostles — The 

Second Period, . . . . . . .78 

CHAPTER IX. 

ST LUKE ONE OF THE FIRST PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL TO THE 

HEATHEN, ....... 88 

CHAPTER X. 

st luke's residence in antioch, . . . .93 

CHAPTER XI. 

A parenthesis, . . . . . . .103 

CHAPTER XII. 

AN ORDINATION OF APOSTLES TO GENTILES, . . .111 

CHAPTER XIII. 

A REPORT OF THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSION, . . .124 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A CONTROVERSY IN THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH, . . .129 

CHAPTER XV. 

ST LUKE'S LAST YEAR IN ANTIOCH, . . . .139 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ST LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED, . . . . .147 

CHAPTER XVII. 

ST LUKE AT TROAS, . . . . . .160 



CONTENTS. xv 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

PAGE 

st luke's voyage to europe, . . . . .167 



CHAPTER XIX. 

st luke ix philippi — The First Part, . . . .174 

CHAPTER XX. 
si luke in philippi — The Second Part, .... 187 

CHAPTER XXI. 

ST LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH, . . . . .197 

CHAPTER XXII. 

ST LUKE IN CORINTH, . . . . 213 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

ST LUKE'S VOYAGE TO PALESTINE, .... 233 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

JERUSALEM REVISITED, ...... 243 

CHAPTER XXV. 

ST LUKE IN CESAREA, ...... 253 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

st luke's voyage to italy, ..... 272 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
st luke's residence in rome — The First Part, • . . 290 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PAGE 

st luke's residence in rome — The Second Part, . . -SOy 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE PUBLICATION OF THE ACTS OP THE APOSTLES, . . -332 

CHAPTER XXX. 

ST LUKE THE LAST COMPANION OP ST PAUL, . . . 339 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

ST LUKE'S RETIREMENT FROM ROME, AND HIS DEATH, . . 354 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE, ..... 360 



A BIOGEAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY. 
AovKas Se nai Aovkios. 

The greatest biographical enigma in the New Testament 
has been the personality of the writer of the third Gospel. 
Sharing about an equal part with St Paul in the extent of 
his contributions to that divine volume, it is wonderful that 
no adequate attempt has hitherto been made to bring the 
question of his identity into a course of critical inqui- 
sition. 

In the authorised version of the New Testament there 
are the names — Luke, Col. iv. 1 4, and 2 Tim. iv. 1 1 ; Lucas, 
Phil em. 24; and Lucius, Acts xiii. 1, and Rom. xvi. 21. 
The object of this argument is to prove that these names, 
which apparently bespeak three persons, belong to a single 
individual. The first of these names, Luke, is made one 
with Lucas, presently ; for the original word in the first 
two texts is the same with the third, the three alike being 
Loukas. The variation in the third text may be accounted 
for by the circumstance that the epistles, from Romans to 
Jude, were entrusted to seven translators. In two instances 
the name obtained the English rendering of Luke ; but the 

A 



2 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

Epistle to Philemon having perhaps been in the hands of 
another translator, the name was left Lucas, as it stood in 
the previous versions, which herein followed the Latin Vul- 
gate. There remains, therefore, but two names to be dealt 
with, Lucas and Lucius. 

Scarcely anything transpires in the early Christian writers 
concerning Luke besides what is read in, or inferred from, 
his own writings and those of St Paul ; and even some of 
the notices so derived soon came to be misunderstood. In 
the second century, Irenseus, attributing the third Gospel 
(as it is called) to Lucas, wrote, "The Evangelist is in- 
debted for what he relates in his Gospel to those who were 
witnesses of the life of Christ ; " adding, " he was a com- 
panion of Paul." Later in the same century, Tertullian 
tells the same, with this addition, " The Gospel of Lucas is 
often attributed to Paul." In the third century, Origen 
more intelligently said, "Lucas wrote the Gospel commended 
by Paul in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and 
published it for the use of Gentile converts;" adding this 
other important note, " There are persons who regard the 
name of Lucas and Lucius as both alike signifying the 
Evangelist." 

In the fourth century, Eusebius wrote, " Lucas, by birth an 
Antiochian, by profession a physician, for the most part 
accompanied Paul; and being diligently conversant with 
the rest of the apostles, has left us two books, written by 
divine inspiration, lessons that are medicinal unto souls 
which he procured from them. The one is the Gospel, which 
he professes to have written as they communicated it to him ; 
the other, the Acts, not of such things as he had received 
by report, but of what he had seen with his own eyes " 
(Eccles. Hist., iii. ch. 4). 

Fifty years later, in the same century, Gregory Nazianzen 
says, " Lucas wrote for the Greeks." 

What was known concerning Luke in the regions of the 



THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY. 3 

West, was but an echo of the small intelligence of the 
East ; the sum whereof was told by Jerome at the close of 
the fourth century. Jerome studied for some time in 
Rome, and afterwards repaired to Palestine, where, in a 
monastery at Bethlehem, he prepared, by request of Pope 
Damasus L, a new version of the Bible for the Latin 
Churches. He also compiled a " Catalogue of Ecclesias- 
tical Writers," which supplies prefaces to several books in 
some editions of the Latin Bible. His account of Luke 
relates, "Lucas, a physician of Antioch, as his writings 
indicate, a follower of the apostle Paul, and his companion 
in all his travels, wrote a Gospel, of which Paul spake 
saving, ' We have sent with him the brother whose praise 
is in all the churches ; ' and to the Colossians, ' Lucas, 
the beloved physician, saluteth you;' and to Timothy, 
' Only Lucas is with me.' When Paul says my Gospel, he 
signifies the volume of Lucas. And not only from Paul 
did he derive his Gospel, who was not with Christ in the 
flesh, but from the other apostles, as he declares in the 
beginning of his Gospel ; and the Acts of the Apostles he 
composed as he saw them. He lived eighty-four years. 
He had no wife. He was buried at Constantinople, to 
which city his bones, with those of Andrew the apostle, 
were transferred." 

Upon consulting antiquity for evidence, it is discourag- 
ing, in all historical researches, to find how fallible and 
contradictory is human testimony, and how perplexing are 
the aberrations of tradition. If, as Eusebius and Jerome 
have said, Luke was a native of Antioch, the present 
argument fails at the threshold. But is their assertion 
unimpeachable 1 Quite otherwise. Dr Lardner, who edited 
and expounded the largest collection of testimonies for 
the "Credibility of the Gospel History" ever published, 
has observed, " The accounts given of Luke by Eusebius, 
and Jerome after him, that he was a native of Antioch, 



4 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

may justly be suspected. We do not find it in any other 
writer before Eusebius. Probably it was the invention of 
some conjectural critic. But all this was taken up without 
any ground or authority. Jerome only follows Eusebius. 
He does not seem to have any information about it from 
others." 

It is likewise said by Dr Enfield, in his " History of 
Philosophy," " Had Eusebius been more free from prejudice, 
had he taken more care not to be imposed upon by spurious 
authorities, his works would have been more valuable." 
And by Leclerc, in his " Life of Eusebius " it is observed, 
" One may complain of Eusebius because he has inserted 
several fables in his ' Ecclesiastical History.' " It may be 
added, Eusebius lived at a period when the allocation of 
saints' names, and the distribution of their mortal relics, 
formed a large part of ecclesiastical business, and in which 
business he himself took no small part. 

Antioch was the Metropolitan Church of Syria. Luke 
had resided there for several years. And if it had been 
customary to say concerning him, that he was of Antioch, 
in the same sense that it was said of Jesus that Capernaum 
was His own city, it required only the stroke of a pen to 
impart to Antioch the higher credit of having been Luke's 
birthplace. 

And then, with respect to Jerome's testimony, in 
following Eusebius in one error, he himself stumbles upon 
another, asserting that Luke in his writings indicates that he 
was of Antioch ; whereas, in no place in his writings is 
such an indication to be found. But this is found, that he 
has written, " Now there was in the Church at Antioch 
Lucius of Gyrene " (Acts xiii. 1). 

In these early notices of the Evangelist, the name of 
Lucius has occurred only once. That it is there is an 
important circumstance for this argument. It transpires 
about midway between the time of the Evangelist and the 



THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY. 5 

commencing ages of ecclesiastical fables. In the passage 
wherein Origen reports that "Lucas and Lucius were said 
to signify the same individual," is found just the evidence 
required: and it is all the more important that it is 
reported by the father of biblical learning. Of course, as a 
Greek writer, the Orientals were always accustomed to call 
the Evangelist Loukas, even as an Englishman calls him 
Luke ; and therefore that those to whom Origen refers 
were among the more learned of his contemporaries may 
reasonably be concluded. With others, the identity would 
soon pass out of recognition. Aovmog b Kvpyvalos would 
soon come to be regarded as another person than A&uxa? b 
iaTPog, Luke the physician. 

Moreover, the error being embodied in standard sources 
of information, the continual assertion by doctors of the 
Church that Lucas was of Antioch, finally excluded all con- 
sideration concerning Lucius the C} T renian. Hence, finding 
no account of this Lucius, true to her apocryphal character, 
the medieval Roman Church invested the name with a 
fictitious individuality and history, and thereby claimed 
another saint for its calendar. In that prodigious repertory, 
the Acta Sanctorum, consisting of fifty-six folio volumes, 
Lucius is conducted from Antioch, and consecrated Bishop 
of Laodicea ; and his anniversary is fixed for April 22. 
From that great authority for the legend, of course, no 
Romanist will ever dissent. By others, misunderstanding 
the case, no attempt is made to provide Lucius with a dis- 
tinct biographical status. As specimens of the manner in 
which this question of the identity of Lucas and Lucius is 
treated by certain Protestant writers, it is found repre- 
sented in Dr Smith's large " Dictionary of the Bible," under 
Lucius, " It must be observed that the names are clearly 
distinct. The missionary companion of St Paul was not 
Lucius, but Lucas, or Lucanus." And by Dr Alford, under 
Acts xiii. 1, it is said, " There is no reason to suppose him 



6 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

(Lucius of Cyrene) the same with Lucas ; but on the con- 
trary ■ for why should Paul in this case use two different 
names 1 " By the positiveness of this style, the student is 
deterred from an inquiry. But, is there, then, no signifi- 
cance in Origen's report ? and is an affirmative of the case so 
utterly beyond the sphere of proof? Perhaps it is not. 
Peradventure, the case can be so viewed, and such reasons 
produced as will establish the position that the names Lucas 
and Lucius mentioned in the New Testament do in fact 
designate one and the same individual. 

The first observation submitted for this argument is, 
that these names are only different in the respect that one 
is Greek and the other Latin. During the Roman dominion 
of Greece, Greek names received a Latin form, and Latin 
names a Greek form, as circumstances might warrant. 
Examples of this transformation may be seen by consulting 
any work on Roman colonial medals and coins. When it 
is said, with reference to this case, that the Latin form of 
Loukas (Lucas) was Lucanus, it may be answered, the 
individual was competent to prefer Lucius. Even at pre- 
sent, Lucas is translated variably in different places in 
Europe ; a person of this name being called in Rome Luca, 
in Paris, Luc, and in London, Luke. Another observation 
is, that the occasions upon which the name is found written 
in its Latin form are both such as warranted its adoption. 
When it was written by himself, Lucius the Cyrenian, Luke 
was in the city of Rome, where he had been accustomed to 
that name for more than two years. Moreover, as his 
treatise was addressed to a friend who is supposed to have 
held a post under the Roman Government, it would seem 
decorous for Luke, in writing from the capital of the empire, 
to recognise his own political status as a Roman citizen. 

The other occasion upon which the name is written Lucius 
had a similar warrant. Occurring in the epistle addressed 
by St Paul to the Romans, it was so written to suit that cir- 



THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY. 7 

cumstance (xvi. 21). At the mention of the name, as it occurs 
in this place, several critics protest, " This cannot be the 
Evangelist, because Lucius is here called by St Paul his 
kinsman." If, by these critics, the Cyrenian Lucius is not 
admitted to have been his kinsman, here is the case of 
another supposed person to be examined. Some writers, to 
escape the dilemma, propose that the verse should be read, 
" Timotheus, my work-fellow, and Lucius \ also, Jason and 
Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you." But the case needs no 
attempt at evasion. It should be observed that the word 
siyyysvrjg, translated kinsman, is not always confined to the 
signification of natural affinity; but is also used figura- 
tively. In this same epistle it is used in two senses. 
It is used in its primary sense, where the apostle writes, "my 
kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites "(ix. 3). 
Whilst in the present instance it manifestly refers to a 
kindred not " according to the flesh," to a spiritual relation- 
ship. The whole epistle is one urging conciliation, grounded 
on the great argument of the admission of Gentiles equally 
with Jews to the privileges involved in the covenant of 
salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. As a Jew, the writer 
mourns the exclusion of his brethren, the Jews, because of 
their unbelief ; but, as an apostle to the Gentiles, he not only 
welcomes these, but concludes his argument by affording to 
both an exemplification of the spirit with which they should 
"receive each other." This he does by occupying the last 
chapter of the epistle with a larger list of names of persons, 
Jews and Gentiles, whom he salutes, than is to be found in 
all his other epistles combined, and by affixing to each name 
some expression of commendation and endearment. Thus, 
of the persons greeted, and of those whose greetings are 
reported, six are styled " my kinsmen ; " the bearer of the 
epistle is called " our sister; " and the mother of Kufus is 
saluted as " his mother and mine." So that, according to 
those protesting critics, here is presented a family-party, 



8 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

and an incongruous one too ; the kinsfolk of the apostle 
being Jews and Gentiles, Oriental and Western, indiscrimi- 
nately. But that the expression " kinsmen" is here used 
with a different signification, and conformably with the 
lesson of love urged upon the apostle's correspondents in 
the context, is further manifested by the request with which 
the salutations are concluded : " Greet one another with a 
holy kiss ;" that is, the Jew is to kiss the Greek, and the 
Greek is to kiss the Jew. In short, the word, " kinsman " 
is applied to Lucius in the same spirit that Titus is styled, 
"my brother" (2 Cor. ii. 13), and that Timothy is called 
my own son in the faith (Tim. i. 2) ; and also after the 
example of the Lord when He said, " The same is my 
brother and sister and mother" (Matt. xii. 50). 

If, then, Lucius was not a natural kinsman of St 
Paul, there remains no obstacle to the identity of the 
Lucius here in company with the apostle with Lucius the 
Cyrenian. 

And, again, the correlative character of these names 
appears in the circumstance that, in those instances in 
which Lucius is mentioned, Lucas is found to have been in 
the identical situation. Thus, Lucius was a Greek " of 
Cyrene ; but Lucas was a Greek, as by all acknowledged. 
Lucius was at Antioch (Acts xiii. 1) ; but Lucas is declared 
by Eusebius, Jerome, and others, to have been of Antioch. 
Lucius is associated with prophets and teachers ; but Lucas 
was a prophet and teacher, being an Evangelist. Lucius 
was at Corinth upon Paul's second visit to that city, and 
whereby it happened that his name is mentioned in the 
Epistle to the Romans, written upon that occasion ; but 
Lucas was a bearer of the letter that preceded and an- 
nounced the apostle's visit (2 Cor. viii. 18). That among 
the Christians at Antioch and at Corinth there were two 
persons, one LouJcas, and another with that name Latinised, 
and at the same time, is not likely. Is it probable that 



THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY. 9 

Paul had two companions having a parallel history such as 
this ? Or was the one the shadow of the other ? 

Finally this argument is not new. There is a reserve of 
authors, of permanent reputation, by whom it has been per- 
ceived and acknowledged that these two names apply to 
one individual only. That profound interpreter of biblical 
difficulties, Dr John Lightfoot, nearly two hundred years 
ago, wrote, under Acts xiii. 1, "Why antiquity has so 
generally held Luke to be an Antiochian is true in regard 
to his first appearing there under the name of Lucius, 
though originally a Cyrenian ; " and he remarks, in general, 
" In both Testaments, the Hebrew of the one and the Greek 
of the other is, upon occasion, flourished with other lan- 
guages." Hugo Grotius, a prince in literature, in his Com- 
mentary, writes, " I think Lucius mentioned Romans xvi. 
21, to be no other than Lucius of Cyrene, and I see no reason 
to suppose that he was another person than Lucas the 
physician. " The very learned Professor Wetstein, who, in 
his biblical researches, came twice to England respecting 
collations for his magnificent edition of the Greek Testa- 
ment, and maintained a correspondence with the great 
critic DrBentley, explains, under Acts xiii. 1, "Lucius, also 
called Lucas in Col. iv. 14." 

Archdeacon Paley, in his " Hora3 Paulinas," says, " A very 
slight alteration would convert Aovxiog into Aovxac, Lucius 
into Luke." Bishop Blomfield, a consummate Greek 
scholar, in his " Lectures on the Acts," unhesitatingly says, 
" Luke was the same person as Lucius of Cyrene, and of 
whom St Paul speaks in the 16th chapter of the Romans ; " 
and he explains, that " in addressing these, St Paul would 
naturally use the Roman form of Lucius in preference 
to that of Lucas." Granville Penn, in his unbiassed 
"Annotations," has this emphatic note, "The name was 
written differently, according to the Greek or Latin 
inflection ; but in the darkening ages which followed, they 



10 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

became distributed to different imaginary persons" (Sup- 
plement). 

And with reference to the practical bearing of the argu- 
ment, Dr Major, in the Introduction to his " Exposition of 
Luke's Gospel," alluding to " these testimonies of many 
learned men," remarks " If these views are admitted, we 
have some knowledge of Luke's character and history." It 
may be added, on the other hand, if these views are rejected, 
there is known only half of Luke's history. 



CHAPTER II. 

LUKE A CYRENIAN. 

By the evidence that Lucas is also Lucius, the biography 
of the Evangelist obtains a beginning. That he was a 
Cyrenian appears from his own pen. In the books ascribed 
to him, his name could only be looked for in the Acts of 
the Apostles ; and only there as, in some manner, an agent 
in spreading the Gospel. And it is just thus that his name 
is found in Acts xiii. 1. It occurs in a kind of document, 
the importance of which has never been sufficiently recog- 
nised. This is a list of the persons commanded by the 
Holy Ghost to separate Barnabas and Saul to their aposto- 
late to the Gentiles. If this list was to be given to the 
Church, there was left for the writer no alternative than to 
include his own name therein. Accordingly, and with the 
precision which such a case required, some distinguishing 
characteristic is added to the name of each of the indivi- 
duals comprised in the list : his own being set down as 
Lucius the Cyrenian (not of Cyrene, as in the common ver- 
sion). In this epithet, the specialty consists in the fact 
that a person from a country so remote from Syria should 
be seen to occupy the station in the Church at Antioch 
that is ascribed to him. By the preservation of this list, a 
link is afforded to the biography of the Evangelist, without 
which the clue had otherwise been missed to some of the 
most interesting points of his history and character. 

So inherent in noble minds is the love of country, that, 
in a narrative describing actions and events, near and re- 



12 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

mote, and extending over thirty years, and in some of 
which the writer was himself engaged, it would be expected 
that some intimations would be found of his fatherland. 
The manner in which his name is enrolled in the list 
alluded to is itself one such intimation ; and another in- 
timation is found in his enumeration of the places whence 
came the multitude of Jews and proselytes that heard, 
each in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God on 
the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 10). In this instance, there 
is a signification in Cyrenians being mentioned which at 
first sight does not appear. Cyrene was the most distant 
place beyond the scenes of Luke's narratives that is men- 
tioned. Nevertheless, the notices given of it discover, 
above all that is said of the others, the writer's acquaint- 
ance with the country. The strangers gathered in Jerusa- 
lem are distinguished by the places whence they came, as 
Parthians, &c, and dwellers in Mesopotamia. But in 
speaking of those from Africa, it is said, " in the parts of 
Libya, about Cyrene." Those parts comprised four out of 
the five cities called the Libyan Pentopolis, namely, Apol- 
lonia, Ptolemais, Arsinoe, Teuchira, and Berenice (Hesperis). 
These cities lay around the coast of the great semicircular 
promontory of North Africa; whilst Cyrene, the first of 
the five, stands on a height gradually receding from the 
shore, surrounded, in a manner, by them all. No stranger 
to the country, at that period, it may be supposed, would 
have given a description of it so geographically correct. 

Another instance of his allusion to the country is found 
in the words " Then arose certain of the synagogue of the 
Libyans and Cyrenians," &c. (Acts vi. 9). " The learned 
Havercamp," says Granville Penn, " was the first who 
pointed out the error of the present text in its substitution 
of the word Libertines." And if a criticism is ever to be 
governed by analogy and correspondence with parallel 
scripture, this reading of Havercamp must be accepted. 



LUKE A CYRENIAN. 13 

In this place, " Libyans, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians " are 
grouped geographically on the one side, and "them of Cilicia 
and Asia" on the other. It is the same in the preceding- 
passage (Acts ii.) There the dwellers in fourteen different 
countries are specified, including those " in the parts of 
Libya about Cyrene," not one being denoted otherwise than 
geographically. Whereas "Libertines" do not denote 
" dwellers " in any particular country, but a condition, 
being freed-men of any country whatsoever. The ordinary 
observation made by commentators is, that by Libertines 
are here signified descendants of Jewish freed-men at 
Borne, who had been expelled thence by Tiberius. The 
congregating of Jews and proselytes together in synagogues, 
according to the several countries whence they came, and 
the languages they spake, is understood ; but the notion 
of a separate synagogue for those Libertines introduces an 
unknown item into Jewish archaeology. And, besides, why 
should these, whether Jews or proselytes, that had been cap- 
tives, have been congregated in a separate synagogue 1 
They could be under no ban in Palestine. Libistii and 
Libystani were the names given by the Romans to the 
people inhabiting the skirts of the colony of Cyrene. 
Hence, probably, arose the error in transcribing the text. 
The Jews of North Africa had always enjoyed the protec- 
tion of the Romans. In Cyrene itself they were numerous. 
In Berenice, they were almost the sole inhabitants, and 
possessed a separate Government of their own. And the 
city of Borium, situate at the extreme east of Cyrenaica, 
boasted a synagogue which the Jews assigned to the age 
of Solomon. This synagogue afterwards became a Christian 
church. It is only reasonable, therefore, to suppose that 
the Libyan Jews and proselytes should have possessed 
one, or even more, of the numerous synagogues in 
Jerusalem. 

And another instance of the mention of Cyrene occurs in 



14 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

the account of the exodus of the disciples from Jerusalem 
(Acts xi. 20), where it is said, " And some of them were 
men of Cyprus and Cyrene." Here the former are repre- 
sented as journeying homewards ; for Antioch lay near the 
coast which looked upon the island of Cyprus. But it was 
the reverse with the others, who travelled in quite a con- 
trary direction from Cyrene. There must therefore have 
been some special reason which determined the mention of 
these. Is it not explained in the thirteenth chapter, where 
Lucius the Cyrenian is himself found at Antioch ? 

Cyrene is now reduced to a barbarism which renders 
intercourse with it adventurous. But it wore another 
aspect in the time of the Evangelist. It then possessed 
features adapted indelibly to impress the mind of an edu- 
cated native, and to influence his taste. It adjoined the 
Latin colony of Carthage, which stood opposite to Italy, as 
the Greek colony of Cyrene stood opposite to Greece. The 
latter colony was founded six hundred years before the 
Christian era, and it retained its language for twelve 
hundred years, or until, having been first ravaged by the 
Persians, A.D. 616, its inhabitants were exterminated by the 
Arabs. It was surrendered by Apion to the Romans, B.C. 
97 ; and thereafter was constituted, including the island of 
Crete, a Roman province, under the name of Cyrenaica. 
In consideration of the ready submission of the Cyrenians 
to the commonwealth, they were endowed with the Roman 
franchise. The prosperity which at that period so abund- 
antly enriched the shores of the Mediterranean was largely 
shared by Cyrenaica. Geographically, the colony presented 
a compact appearance, consisting of a promontory stretch- 
ing into the sea, the land side having been protected from 
the encroachments of the nomadic hordes of Libya by mili- 
tary stations. The salubrity of this portion of North 
Africa was proverbial. Its fertility is spoken of with ad- 
miration both by the ancients and by recent travellers. 



LUKE A CYRENIAN. 15 

Herodotus relates that the country had three harvests — 
First, the fruits near the sea became ready for the harvest 
and vintage ; secondly, those of the middle or hilly region, 
called the uplands ; and thirdly, those on the highest 
lands — so that there were altogether eight months of 
gathering time. M. Pacho,. of Nice, who, in 1826, pub- 
lished, under the auspices of the French Government, the 
most complete account of the country that has appeared, 
relates that, when his caravan arrived upon its confines, 
the hilly character of the country, the forests that adorned 
the landscape, the height of the trees, the luxuriance of 
their foliage, and the verdure of the herbage, impressed 
his Egyptian and Nubian attendants with wonder and de- 
light. And a more recent traveller writes — " The hills 
abound with beautiful scenes, some of them exceeding in 
richness of vegetation, whilst they equal in grandeur any- 
thing that is to be found in the Apennines. Cyrene was 
also celebrated for its flowers, and the ground is still en- 
amelled with a rich flora, indicating how fitting it was to 
be the garden of the Hesperides, or the abode of the lotos- 
eaters " (Hamilton's "Wanderings in North Africa," 1835). 
The city of Cyrene stood on the northern or seaward edge 
of an extensive plateau, whose elevation is about 2000 
feet above the level of the sea. From the summit the 
ground descends abruptly about 1000 feet to a second 
plateau, which extends nearly to the sea, and terminates 
in another abrupt descent. The face of the upper slope 
presents a succession of hills separated by deep ravines (or 
wadys). The city occupied two of those hills, and is 
naturally defended on three sides by deep declivities. It 
is by the ravine divided into nearly two equal parts, most 
of the buildings being on the western side. The view from 
the site of the city is magnificent. East and west is an un- 
broken prospect, as far as the eye can reach, of a plateau 
beautifully varied with wood, among which are scattered 



16 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

tracts of barley and corn, and meadows nearly always 
covered with verdure. Kavines, the sides thickly planted 
with trees, intersect the country in various directions, and 
afford channels for the mountain streams in their passage 
to the sea. The Cyrenians took advantage of the descent 
in terraces to shape the ledges into roads leading along the 
side of the hill ; and the drives are to this day, it is said, 
distinctly scored with the marks of the chariot wheels in- 
dented in the stony surface. Curiously does this coincide 
with Pindar's description of Cyrene as " a land of goodly 
coursers, and a city famed for chariots" ("Pythian," Ode IV.) 
To the north, looking from the summit, the Mediterranean 
is visible at about a distance of eight miles ; whilst the 
city, beheld from the sea, with its coronal of temples and 
palaces, presented a distinguished landmark to the mariner. 
But of that once splendid city, nothing now is visible but 
scattered morsels of masonry and sculpture. The sacred 
spring of Cyre, which attracted the first colonists to the 
choice of the spot for their capital, murmurs a mournful 
memory. It still flows from its pristine source, but it no 
longer attracts the pilgrim to its stream, nor inspires the 
lay of the poet as once he sung — 

" And let me quaff the Cyrenian spring." 

— " Propertius," iv. 6. 

" The former splendour and importance of this city and 
the neighbouring country," says Heeren, " are testified by 
an abundance of noble ruins ; a more accurate research into 
which every friend of antiquity much desires " (" Manual of 
Ancient History "). Most of its ruins are buried beneath the 
soil ; but sepulchres innumerable appear. The vicinity of 
Egypt seems to have inspired the Cyrenians with the same 
reverence for the dead which distinguished that ancient 
nation. But instead of erecting pyramids, their mauso- 
leums were cut in the everlasting hills. In these, to the 



LUKE A CYRENIAN. 17 

extent of two miles around, is beheld a vast necropolis, a 
true city of the dead. Upon the face of the hills, and fol- 
lowing all their sinuosities, terraces were formed, reached 
by flights of steps. These terraces, according to the height 
of the several hills, amount sometimes to ten or twelve in 
number ; each presenting a series of facades to sepulchral 
grottoes, whose elegance, variety of style, and state of pre- 
servation, present a striking contrast to the mutilated relics 
of sculpture that lie scattered about them. Within the 
sepulchres are still to be found marble sarcophagi, together 
with many mural inscriptions and paintings. 

An exploration of Cyrene was made in the year 1861 by 
Lieutenant R. M. Smith, R.E.. and Lieutenant Porcher, R.N. ; 
and as the fruit of their labours the British Museum is en- 
riched with nearly two hundred objects, being chiefly marble 
statues and statuettes, obtained from what is supposed were 
the sites of temples of Apollo, Bacchus, and Venus. 
Amongst them is a full-length statue, larger than life, of a 
queen of one of the Ptolemies. There is a statue of Aris- 
teus, the philosopher. And, more interesting than all, there 
is a statue of Apollo, to whom the fountain of Cyre was 
dedicated, and which was discovered in its immediate 
vicinity. This statue is seven feet seven inches high. It 
bears the lyre, having a bow and quiver beside it. A ser- 
pent is represented twining round the trunk of a tree, 
which partly supports the statue. In this combination 
Apollo is symbolised as Iar^aavrvc, the oracular physi- 
cian. This idol often caught the eye of an inhabitant of 
Cyrene. 

The intellectual character of Cyrene was alike attrac- 
tive. It was fruitful in men distinguished in philosophy 
and in arts. An academy was founded there by Aristippus, 
a disciple of Socrates. Aristippus ridiculed the singularities 
affected by other philosophers, particularly the stately 
gravity of Plato, and the rigid abstinence of Diogenes. 



18 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

When asked what he had gained by philosophy, Aristippus 
replied, " A capacity of conversing without embarrassment 
with all classes of men." Eratosthenes, a native of Cyrene, 
may be called the father of geographical science. Carneades, 
of Cyrene, was the founder of a new academy at Athens. 
Whilst the odes of Callimachus take rank among ancient 
works of genius. Of these odes an edition was edited by 
the late Bishop Blomfield ; and they have furnished Dr 
Major with several philological illustrations for his exposi- 
tory notes upon the Gospel of St Luke, particularly in chap. 
i. 28; iii. 4 ; x. 28 ; xviii. 27; xxiii. 31. 

An allusion to a Cyrenian reputation is found in Athe- 
neus' Deipnophistce, or Banquet of Philosophers, book xii. 1. 
A guest says, " You seem to me to be a man of Cyrene " 
(to quote from the ' Tyndareum ' of Alexis), ' and a com- 
panion of Timocrates ; for in Cyrene, if you invite any 
one to supper, there presently arrive twelve others, and 
ten chariots.' Upon this passage Paul Manutius remarks, 
" This line from the ' Tyndareum ' (a play) of Alexis, 
Atheneus uses proverbially ; he thereby satirises the in- 
satiable avidity of the student Timocrates in inquiring for 
books for his reading, and for the purpose of editing them. 
The saying is applicable to a man of an insatiable love of 
reading, or to one who is never satisfied with other plea- 
sures."* 

It is natural that some of those associations by which 
Luke had been surrounded should abide in the memory of 
a native, and that some savour of their character should 
be traceable in his writings, however long he may have 
been absent from the scenes. Coincidences with his native 
predilections are plainly found in Luke's record of the cir- 
cumstances that a Cyrenian bare the cross of Christ to 
Calvary; that Cyrenians, being Jews and proselytes, 

* " Pauli Manutii Adagia," Venetiis, 1591. Small 4 to, p. 1896. 



LUKE A CY REN I AN. 19 

formed one of those companies to whom the gospel was 
first publicly preached by the apostles after the Lord's re- 
surrection ; that Cyrenians were among those who most 
fiercely opposed Stephen ; and that Cyrenians were in num- 
ber of those who first announced the gospel to Greeks at 
Antioch. Nor less obvious are the reasons which would 
induce the record of these circumstances. They connected 
Greeks with the earliest annals of Christianity. These 
notices gratified those for whom the Cyrenian primarily 
wrote. They commended the gospel in all regions where 
the Greek language was spoken. And copies of his books 
being exported from Alexandria, where they were multi- 
plied, those books, as they were the first which conveyed 
a knowledge of the gospel to the inhabitants of Cyrenaica 
by writings, so they continued to be the favourite Scrip- 
tures in the African churches, as long as those churches 
flourished. 

But besides the internal evidence of the identity of 
Lucius of Cyrene and the writer of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, there is also external evidence afforded of an import- 
ant character. In the manuscript copy of the Evangelists 
and Acts of the Apostles in Greek and Latin, called the 
' Codex Beza,' now in the University Library, Cambridge, 
there is found in Acts xi. 28, instead of, " Then stood up 
one of them," this remarkable variation, " And when WE 
gathered about him," that is, about Agabus. The scene 
here described was at Antioch. But Lucius the Cyrenian 
was at this moment in Antioch. This appears from the 
twentieth verse in this chapter, which says, " Some of the 
men were of Cyprus and of Cyrene," collated with the first 
verse of the thirteenth chapter, where the name of Lucius is 
written as one of the prophets and teachers in the Church 
at Antioch. For the authenticity of that reading, this argu- 
ment does not plead. It is the unquestionable antiquity of 
it which gives it importance here. The manuscript was 



20 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

written about the fifth century. And it is not likely that 
the reading appeared for the first time in this copy, or that 
it did not appear likewise in some others. But whether or 
not, its presence furnishes a testimony for the identity of 
Lucius and the writer of the Acts of the Apostles of an an- 
tiquity of at least thirteen hundred years. And further, 
there exists the same kind of evidence to show that a know- 
ledge that Lucius of Cyrene was the writer of the Acts of 
the Apostles survived in the East for a thousand years. 
In both the London and the Paris Polyglott Bibles is 
printed an Arabic version of the Acts of the Apostles, from 
an oriental copy, supposed to have been written about the 
time of the Crusades, wherein the passage Acts ii. 10 is 
rendered, " The parts of Libya about Cyrene, which is our 
country." With this supplemental clause critics have been 
sadly puzzled. Amongst others, Dr S. Davidson, in his 
" Introduction to the New Testament," following Professor 
Hugg, represents it as relating to the translator, an opinion, 
however, which is negatived by the accompanying criticism. 
For after saying, " Internal evidence shows that the books 
were translated directly from the Greek," Dr Davidson adds, 
"In the time of the Crusades we could not expect so ac- 
curate a knowledge of the Creek in the parts about Cyrene." 
Now, a reference to history will show that, at the time of 
the Crusades, the version could not have been made by a native 
of Cyrene. At the date assigned to the manuscript, Cyrene 
had been in ruins for nearly four hundred years. There 
could, therefore, have been no student there at the period 
of the Crusades, nor yet any literature, save what was 
engraven on the sepulchral remains. Moreover, to suppose 
that the clause relates to the translator himself, is to place 
him in an unique position ; for whenever was a translator 
found obtruding an anecdote concerning himself into the 
text of his author 1 A reasonable conclusion is, that the 
clause is a piece of information relating to the writer of the 



LUKE A CYRENIAN. 21 

Acts of the Apostles, either volunteered as a gloss by the 
translator, or else already found existing in that copy of the 
Greek text which was in his hands. And so, in either case, 
it is an emphatic utterance of antiquity concerning Lucius 
the Cyrenian. 



CHAPTER III. 

LUKE A GENTILE. 

It does not follow that because Luke was a Cyrenian 
he was therefore a Gentile. There were then, as now, 
many Jews in every principal emporium of commerce. 
But without almost any contradiction he has been adjudged 
to have been a proselyte ; and if a proselyte, he was of 
course a Gentile. Evidence that he was a Gentile abounds 
throughout his writings. Here the deductive process 
proving this point will be confined chiefly to references to 
his Gospel. 

1. Among the several indications that Luke was a Gentile 
are the following :— His Gospel has an introductory note. 
" A reason for this preface," an old commentator says, " is, 
that Luke had not seen Christ in the flesh, as the other 
Evangelists had" (Adam Contzen, 1626). 

2. The political and chronological notices in his Gospel 
are those of a Gentile. Matthew, as a native of the 
country, writes only " Herod the king " (ii. 1). But, as there 
were other kings throughout the Roman empire, it was 
natural for a person of another country than Judea to make 
the specification which is done by Luke in the words, 
" There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea," &c. 
(i. 5). Again, in the first verse of the second chapter of 
his Gospel, Luke writes, " In those days there went out 
a decree from Caesar Augustus," &c. No form like this 
occurs in the other Gospels, this method of computation 
being inconsistent with the prejudices of Jewish nationality. 



LUKE A GENTILE. 23 

Its use therefore indicates that the writer was a foreigner. 
And a still more significant indication of a foreign hand is 
found in another chronological form which Luke employs 
at the beginning of his third chapter. The former data 
show his relation with Eome : this formula discovers his 
connexion with Cyrene and Egypt. An elucidation of this 
peculiarity in his Gospel, like some other antiquarian 
problems, has been derived from a tomb. Charles Taylor 
was the first writer who pointed out this remarkable 
coincidence between the places of Luke's nativity and 
education and the style here adopted. In his " Fragments" 
he writes, "On the 24th of January 1821, an Egyptian 
contract on papyrus, in cursive Greek characters, dated 104 
years B.C., from Thebes in Upper Egypt, preserved in the 
hand of a mummy, was read before the Royal Academy of 
Berlin by Augustus Boekh. The contract begins thus : 
* Under the reign of Cleopatra and Ptolemy, in the twelfth 
year, which is also the ninth under the Pontiff at Alex- 
andria, under Berenice Philadelphe, under the priests of 
both sexes who are at Ptolemeus," &c. Here a specimen 
is afforded of the Egyptian mode of engrossing a date. 
But mark, he says, the parallel. " The passage in Luke's 
Gospel reads, 'Now in the fifteenth year of the reign 
of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being Governor of Judea, 
and Herod being Tetrarch of Itruria, and Lysinias the 
Tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high 
priests '" (iii. 1). "The association," he continues, "is 
here apparent. Excepting in the names, Luke's example 
is a counterpart of the former. But as he is the only 
Evangelist that affects this precision, it proves that he was 
of a different country from the others, and accustomed to 
different forms. After this evidence," adds Mr Taylor, " is 
it possible to doubt whether Lucius of Cyrene be our St 
Luke?" 

3. The geographical explanations of his Gospel are those of 



24 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

a foreigner. Luke writes, " a city which is called Bethle- 
hem;" "a city called Bethesda;" "Nazareth, a city of 
Galilee ;" " Capernaum, a city of Galilee ; " " Arimathea, a 
city of the Jews-" " the Mount that is called the Mount of 
Olives." Whereas, by Matthew and Mark, being natives of 
Palestine, the names of these places are given without any 
expletives. And a passage also occurs in Acts i. 19, which 
explains concerning the Potter's Field, " that field is called 
in their proper tongue, Aceldama." Certainly a Jew would 
not have so written. 

4. His genealogy of Christ is adapted to interest all 
nations alike. The genealogy drawn by Matthew follows 
the political and royal ancestry of our Lord, by which He 
is shown to be the heir to the throne of David, and the 
Messiah promised to Abraham, the federal head of the 
Jews, to whom His pedigree is limited. Whereas Luke, 
regarding Him as the Desire of all nations, continues 
beyond David to trace His ancestry upwards to Adam, the 
head and fountain of the universal human family. 

5. His verbal expletives are such as would be made by a 
foreigner. For instance, Matthew writes, " Man shall not 
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God" (iv. 4). Whereas, instead of the Hebraism of 
the latter clause, Luke simply says, " but by every word 
of God " (iv. 4). Again Matthew writes, " Then the devil 
taketh Him up into the holy city." But Luke, neglecting the 
metonymy used by the Jews, plainly says, "And brought 
Him to Jerusalem." Again, the other Evangelists, as Jews, 
in speaking of the temple, of the law, and of the rulers and 
elders, simply call them such ; whereas Luke, on the first 
occasion upon which he alludes to them, writes, " The 
temple of the Lord" (i. 9) ; "The law of the Lord" (ii. 23) ; 
" Their rulers and elders " (Acts iv. 5). And explanatory of 
their two principal sects he writes, "For the Sadducees 
say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, 



LUKE A GENTILE. 25 

but the Pharisees believe both -" — a precision in each case 
which plainly intimates that he wrote as a foreigner, and also 
in a manner which was proper in a document addressed 
to a person in a land surrounded by other temples and 
rites. Concerning this peculiarity, Dr Major observes : — 
"There occur in Luke's Gospel several instances in which 
he affords an exposition of things that were new, or would 
appear doubtful to Gentiles, where he seems only to be 
carrying on the narrative ; his design of relating the same 
things with the other Evangelists being often accomplished 
by the difference of only a word. Sometimes he varies 
from them more designedly. It is observable that in 
chapter iii. 4-9, Luke quotes no less than three verses out of 
Isaiah xlvi., whereas Matthew and Mark, in their parallel 
relation, quote only the first of them. But it was necessary 
for St Luke's purpose that he should thus extend the 
quotation in order to assure the Gentiles, for whom he 
wrote, that they were destined to be partakers of the 
gospel, and to see the salvation of God." (" St Luke's Gos- 
pel, with English Notes," the introduction.) In his account 
of the transfiguration of our Lord, Luke avoids the word 
metamorphothe used by Matthew, which would have mis- 
led Gentile readers, and expresses the sense by saying " the 
fashion of his countenance was changed " (eteron) (ix. 29). 
To this note may be added the observation that Luke reports 
fewer discourses of our Lord in controversy with Jews 
than does Matthew, his interest in these having been 
naturally less than that of the Jew. 
"f — 6. His preservation of prophecies relating to Gentiles, not 
recorded by the other Evangelists, seems to evince his own 
personal interest in them. Two such prophecies are found 
amid the opening scenes of his Gospel. The first in the 
declaration of the angel to the shepherds, "Behold, I 
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
people." And the second in Simon's ode of welcome, 



26 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

wherein he points to the babe as " a light to lighten the 
Gentiles." 

7. Luke's record of intimations given by Christ of the 
ultimate expansion of His divine kingdom, intimate his 
foreign sympathies. The appointment of the seventy 
evangelists (only told by him) as an addition to the staff of 
Christ's ministers, was such an intimation. This appears in 
the words, " The harvest truly is great, but the labourers 
are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He 
would send forth labourers into His harvest " (x. 2). This 
intimation afterwards found an illustration in the situation 
occupied by some of those evangelists, especially by Barna- 
bas, in the Acts of the Apostles. But the plainest intima- 
tion of this expansion was that made by our Lord when 
He charged these same evangelists, along with the apostles, 
that, as His witnesses, they " should preach repentance and 
remission of sins in His name among all nations" (xxiv. 
47). 

But besides these particulars, there are other circum- 
stances in the treatment of his subject which tend to illus- 
trate Luke's position as a Gentile : some of which are 
these : — 

1. As a foreigner, he would naturally be inquisitive 
concerning what were the personal characteristics of Jesus; 
concerning, for instance, His devotional habits. Accord- 
ingly, he notices that it was the custom of Jesus to 
attend the synagogues on the Sabbath-day (iv. 16) ; that 
after his public ministry He was wont to retire to desert 
places (iv. 42 ; ix. 10). Aptly on this point, Dr Townson 
has observed, " Luke records instances of our Lord's praying 
at His baptism (iii. 21) • before the choice of His apostles 
(vi. 12) ; before He plainly declared to them that He should 
be put to death, and rise again the third day (ix. 18 and 22) ; 
and at His transfiguration, on which occasion Matthew and 
Mark leave us to conclude the practice of our Lord as a 



LUKE A GENTILE. 27 

thing of course ; but Luke is explicit concerning His devo- 
tion. And with respect to the inculcation of the duty, the 
admonition to pray always (xviii. 1), is repeated (xxi. 36). 
Two parables are given to show the success of frequent and 
fervent prayer (xi. 5 ; xviii. 1), which occur only in Luke's 
Gospel. Besides which there are a dozen instances of prais- 
ing, blessing, and glorifying God mentioned only by him. 
The adopted Gentile," adds this writer, "wanted to be taught 
these things more than the Jew trained to the duties " 
("Discourses on the Gospels"). 

2. As a Gentile, the sympathies of Luke were attracted 
by what he was informed concerning the gentleness of Jesus, 
and His loving acceptance of sinners, being penitent. 
Besides what are common with the other Evangelists, he 
has gathered many charming illustrations hereof into his 
pages. Indeed, these portions of his Gospel led Renan to 
observe, "Luke's own tendencies are apparent. He is 
fond of narratives that bring into prominence the conver- 
sion of sinners and the exaltation of the humble." This 
is said by a sceptic, in a spirit of detraction. Nevertheless, 
the criticism is accepted as correct. Among Luke's illus- 
trations of this feature of our Lord's disposition are the 
conversion of Zaccheus and of the thief on the cross ; and 
the series of parables contained in the fifteenth chapter of 
his Gospel forms a cluster of such illustrations. With what 
beautiful simplicity are those parables introduced ! " Then 
drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to 
hear Him." Hereupon in the Saviour's teaching follow the 
parable of the lost sheep (for which every good shepherd 
is concerned) ; the parable of the lost piece of money (which 
every person values) ; the parable of the prodigal son (whom 
every person pities) ; and, the joyful recovery of each being 
described, the affecting intelligence is added by the Divine 
Teacher, " Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in heaven 
over one sinner that repenteth." Joy in heaven ! What 



28 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

a sweet preface to the parable that folio wed ! Surely there 
was given occasion for joy in heaven at that very instant. 
A reminiscence of the ministry of Jesus like this could not 
fail to attract the admiration, and doubtless formed the 
solace, of Luke's own mind, even as his record thereof has 
been, and will yet be, the solace of millions of his readers. 
3. As a Gentile himself, Luke would be careful to inquire 
concerning Christ's disposition towards Gentiles. Accordingly, 
his Gospel describes several scenes in which this disposition 
was shown. He relates that, in the first public discourse 
at Nazareth, Jesus said, " Unto none of the widows in 
Israel (during a great famine), was Elias sent, save unto a 
woman of Sarepta of Sidon " (iv. 26). And that although 
many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, 
none of them were cleansed save Naaman the Syrian (iv. 27). 
There were two classes of people, not being Jews, who, 
within the limit of the Lord's journeys, often came under 
His observation : these were Romans, who held garrison in 
the several cities of Palestine, and Samaritans. Against 
both of these classes the Jews entertained a consummate 
animosity ; against the former, on political, and against 
the latter, on religious grounds. But Jesus entertained no 
prejudices. Instances of favours bestowed upon individuals, 
of both these classes by our Lord are recorded by all the 
Evangelists. Some of Luke's examples are highly charac- 
teristic of the point of view from which he regarded them. 
A lawyer inquired of our Lord, " Who is my neighbour ? " 
The answer to this question was conveyed by the parable 
of the Good Samaritan. But Luke alone has preserved this 
exquisite picture and its moral (x. 29-37). Upon the 
healing of the ten lepers, nine of them being Jews, and one 
a Samaritan, Luke relates, Jesus said, " Were there not ten 
cleansed 1 But where are the nine 1 There is not found 
that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger " 
(xvii. 17-18.) The preservation of such passages as these, 



LUKE A GENTILE. 29 

whilst they reveal the benignity with which our Lord re- 
garded Gentiles, argue likewise Luke's own relation to 
these. 

4. An indication of the Gentile consists in the absence in 
Luke's Gospel of the writer's own appearance therein as a 
teacher. Between his Gospel and Matthew's, there is in 
this respect a signal difference. In Matthew's Gospel ex- 
positions of the relation subsisting between the circum- 
stances of Christ's life and the prophecies which had been 
made before concerning them are frequent. The publican, 
it may be supposed, from the promptitude with which he 
obeyed the Lord's call, had been secretly a devout man, 
like Nathaniel. He had already searched the Scriptures 
to see how the character of Jesus, whose conduct he had 
had opportunities to observe, being a resident in Capernaum, 
corresponded with those prophecies. And so his sudden 
call by the Lord did not find him unprepared. Matthew 
directed the Jews to their own Scriptures. But those for 
whom Luke wrote did not possess them, nor any divine 
records to which to appeal. 

5. As a foreigner, Luke would be curious to survey the 
elements of society by which our Lord had been surrounded. 
Besides depicting the great character of Jesus, the 
Evangelists incidentally, but necessarily and frequently, 
advert to two classes of the Jews, and to their conduct to- 
wards Him. In this, as in every branch of their subject, 
their accounts substantially agree. It could not be other 
wise. For that conduct having been prophetically declared, 
how many soever might write concerning it, their several 
accounts must, if true, have a correspondence with one 
another, and all with the sacred predictions. But in 
Luke's Gospel this subject is touched much often er, and is 
treated more circumstantially, than in the others. And, 
accordingly, his notices of those classes, namely, the common 
people and the hierarchy, serve to cast a strong light upon 



30 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the progress of Christ in His ministry. Without having 
actually witnessed their conduct towards Jesus, Luke had 
nevertheless the advantage that he was able to compare the 
notices communicated to him concerning them with those 
classes themselves. When he visited Jerusalem, the same 
high priest and his hierarchy, together with the rulers and 
the sects, were still here. Also, the same people among 
whom Jesus had walked, and whom He had sought to bless, 
were still to be seen on either hand. 

6. In his pictures of the common people, Luke first records 
an announcement made by an angel, that John should 
lt make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (i. 17). And 
truly, it' may be said, had there not been such a people, if the 
common people had met Christ in the spirit that their 
rulers did, there had been no history of His ministry to 
record. And that there should be such a people is again 
intimated in the prophetic words applied by Christ to Him- 
self, in his inaugural discourse, and which Luke set before 
his narrative of Christ's ministry for a text, " He hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor " (iv.) The 
fulfilment of this prediction meets the reader in nearly every 
page of his Gospel. The class contemplated is found con- 
stantly attending the ministry of Jesus, so that He was never 
without hearers. It is testified, " They pressed upon Him 
to hear the word." Their numbers amounted sometimes to 
four and five thousand, besides women and children. 

At the beginning of the Lord's ministry — that is, when, 
after His baptism and temptation in the wilderness, He 
returned into Galilee — Luke writes : " There went out a 
fame of Him throughout all the region round about. And 
He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all " (iv. 
14, 15). After the raising to life of the widow's son at 
Nain, he writes : " There came a fear on all ; and they 
glorified God, saying, that a great Prophet is risen up 
among us ; and that God has visited His people" (vii. 16). 



LUKE A GENTILE. 31 

Nor was this veneration of the people abated by the op- 
position of the higher classes ; for, after an occasion upon 
which Jesus had justified Himself, in reply to an indignant 
reproof of a ruler of a synagogue, Luke writes : " And 
when He had said these things, all His adversaries were 
ashamed ; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious 
things that were done by Him" (xiii. 17). And that the 
people were consistent in their grateful veneration of Christ 
he shows by representing them as having taken every op- 
portunity to shield Him from the malice of His enemies, 
observing, " When these sought to destroy Him, they were 
hindered through fear of the people" (xix. 48, xx. 19). 
He also shows that it was this apprehension of the indigna- 
tion of the people that gave importance to the services of 
the traitor ; for what others could not do, Judas promised 
to effect " in the absence of the multitude " (xxii. 6). 

That is a "vulgar error" which says that this same 

people were those that vociferated against Jesus before the 

tribunal of Pilate. They did not do so. The prosecution 

was conducted very early in the morning, expressly to avoid 

their knowledge of it. They who on the day before had 

Avelcomed with hosannas the lowly Jesus were not yet in the 

streets. All was yet silent, except where the prosecution 

was conducted. At the season of the Paschal Feast, there 

were many thousands of foreign Jews in the city. These 

had not seen how Jesus had gone about doing good to 

people of their own class. They knew not Jesus, except 

by the misrepresentations of the priests. Jews resident 

abroad were always zealous to prove their fidelity to the 

national cause, as represented by the Sanhedrim. Of these, 

with Judas, the priests, in their conspiracy against Jesus, 

made their tools. Of these chiefly consisted the multitude 

who, accompanied by officers of the temple, being Jews, 

went, guided by Judas, in search of Jesus (xxii. 47) ; and* 

who, mobbing around the judgment-hall, cried " Crucify 



32 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L TJKE. 

Him." " The criminal usually stood under the rostra \\\ a 
mean garb, where he was exposed to the scoffs and raileries 
of the people " (Adams's " Eoman Antiquities "). This is just 
what that mob did at this time. Of the same class with 
that mob were afterwards the murderers of Stephen (Acts 
vi. 9). Luke had been informed by his witnesses of two 
companies of the people in relation to the scene of the suf- 
ferings of Christ. Accordingly, the time in which they 
respectively appear in the scene, the place which each occu- 
pied, and the difference in their conduct, are accurately 
marked in his narrative. The multitude just noticed is 
again brought before the reader, and in exact keeping with 
its previous position and temper. The people composing 
this company are associated with the rulers in deriding 
Christ as He hung upon the cross (xxiii. 35). The company 
that had heretofore reverently followed Him does not 
appear on the scene until about nine o'clock, or as the pro- 
cession passed the street, and thence through the north or 
Damascus gate to Calvary. And the behaviour of this 
company is represented as conformable with their previous 
conduct towards Jesus ; for the people composing it are 
associated with the women in bewailing and lamenting 
Him (ver. 27). And in further distinction of these from 
those that had abetted the enemies of Christ, and now 
with them derided Him, Luke adds this vivid sketch : 
" And all the people that came to that sight " {i.e., the casual 
spectators), " beholding the things which were done, smote 
their breasts, and returned " (ver. 48). Certainly, this does 
not describe the mockers. Moreover, in the glimpse that 
is given of the people that had known Jesus and shared 
His benevolence, it is seen that after His resurrection, and 
they had witnessed the signs and the wonders of healing 
wrought by the apostles, and had partaken the benefits 
'thereof, when officers apprehended Peter and John in the 
temple, they took them without violence, for the reason 



LUKE A GENTILE. 33 

that they feared lest they should have been stoned by the 
people (Acts v. 26). The rudest populace will neither in- 
flict nor suffer an injury upon their personal benefactors. 

7. No less graphic is Luke's picture of the higher class of 
the Jews. The same discrimination of character is discovered 
in his account of the conduct of the hierarchy, including 
the sect of Pharisees and the profession of Scribes. He 
represents that neither John nor Jesus came to preach the 
gospel to these. And although Pharisees in great numbers 
attended John's ministry, in the common hope of the 
advent of the Messiah of their immediate expectation, yet 
the Baptist hereupon prophetically denounced them as a 
generation of vipers, — a character which they fully exhibited 
upon the actual revelation of the Messiah in the humble 
person of Jesus. In the virtual repudiation of John's 
teaching, whose prophetic character they did not publicly 
deny, consisted the hypocrisy with which our Saviour so 
often charged them. As vipers, they were of their father, 
the old serpent, the devil. As vipers, they always tracked 
the path of the Messiah they rejected. The testimony of 
all the Evangelists shows that they persecuted Christ 
throughout every step of His ministry ; that no great work 
was wrought by Jesus, or a discourse delivered by Him to 
the people, but they were at hand to obtrude their objec- 
tions, and to raise their cavils against His authority. Jesus 
had said, " Blessed are they that are not offended in me." 
But the entire testimony of the Evangelists and of Luke's 
researches show, that they took offence at His application 
of the Messianic prophecies. They turned from the pas- 
sages whereby it was seen that He should touch humanity 
in its sorrows. They that confessed Him they accounted 
accursed (John vii. 49), so intensely did they resent a lowly 
Messiah. As much as they abhorred the Boman yoke, 
they dreaded a demonstration that threatened a rebellion, 
which they dared not risk. They, therefore, made a virtue 

C 



34 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LVRE. 

of necessity, and the motive which they urged upon Pilate 
was exactly a reflection of their own duplicity : " If you let 
this man go, you are not Csesar's friend." 

8. As an element of opposition to our Lord, the malig- 
nity of Satan obtains the notice of Luke in a manner pecu- 
liar. With Matthew and Mark, he gives an account of our 
Lord's temptation in the wilderness. That event would 
attract his attention as a reverse picture of the fatal tempt- 
ation in Eden. But beyond those Evangelists, his account 
has this ominous appendage : " When the devil had ended 
all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season " (iv. 
13). Our Lord's ministry was a continuation of the 
triumph achieved by Him in the wilderness. But when 
Luke arrives, in his narrative, to the predicted season, and 
writing in common with John, " Then Satan entered into 
Judas," he adds, beyond this, what Jesus said to the multi- 
tude conducted by the devil-possessed one to apprehend 
Him : " But this is your hour and the power of darkness " 
(xxii. 53). Hereby the first and the last temptations are 
connected in Luke's pages. And, as after the first tempta- 
tion, angels ministered to Jesus, so they did in this. And 
thereafter they heralded His triumph: "He is not here; 
He is risen." With the fame of the old serpent, or 
python, the Gentile was conversant. To him, therefore, 
the triumph announced in those words was invested with 
a halo of glory. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LUKE A PHYSICIAN. 

The knowledge that Luke was a physician is derived alone 
from the passage in the Epistle to the Colossians, " Luke, 
the beloved physician, saluteth you" (iv. 14). Neverthe- 
less, this simple intelligence being given, the means of its 
confirmation are abundant. 

Luke's profession, which thus transpires so seemingly 
accidentally, is, in fact, not fortuitous. It is only another 
example of the plan of much of the New Testament writ- 
ings, which often furnish, in this manner, a hint which it 
is the business of the student to pursue to its conclusions. 
Here, for instance, is to be observed the harmony between 
the Apostle's mention of this particular concerning Luke, 
and the fact of his having been a native of Cyrene. Upon 
this coincidence Granville Penn has this intelligent note : 
" In truth there appears to be a happy correspondence be- 
tween the historian's own description of himself as Lucius 
the Cyrenian, and St Paul's designation of him as Lucas the 
physician. As a school of medicine Cyrene was proverbial 
(Herodotus, iii. 131). Hence the words 6 xu^aiog, ' the 
Cyrenian,' and o iarsog, l the physician,' may be understood 
synonymously." 

In contrast with this note, it is represented in a recent 
exposition of the New Testament, " There are reasons which 
justify the opinion that Luke was a heathen by birth, and 
a slave in his condition, or at least a freedman. His origin 
and profession agree with the fact that the Romans were 



36 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

averse to the practice of medicine, which they left for slaves " 
(Webster and Wilkinson). 

The opinion that Luke was a slave or freedman, the 
whole tenure of his life and literature contradicts ; and the 
inference that, because he was a physician, therefore a slave, 
is quite unwarrantable. It is true that the profession of a 
physician was held in little repute in the early period of the 
Roman Eepublic ; but the disesteem of it had ceased very 
long before the time of Luke. It is also true that, even in 
his time, families of wealth, maintaining a great establish- 
ment, kept slaves skilled in various trades, and among them 
was usually one that understood medicine. But the physi- 
cian must have come to be held in high estimation among 
the Eomans when Cicero wrote, " The skill of curing and 
preserving the body has been thought a divine invention." 
Celsus, who wrote his classical " Institution of Medicine " 
shortly before the time of Luke, was a Roman,, but he was 
not a slave. 

But Luke was a Greek. And among the Greeks the pro- 
fession of medicine was held in high estimation. " There 
was a law in Athens that no female or slave should practise 
it ; and there are extant several medals struck at Smyrna 
(near Antioch) in honour of different persons belonging to 
the medical profession " (" Penny Cyclopaedia," vol. xviii.) 
Moreover, Luke had studied in those schools of medicine 
wherein stood at the head of their profession the memorable 
names of Hippocrates and Galen— chieftains — not slaves ! 

Our blessed Lord himself ennobled and sanctified the pro- 
fession of a physician. He said, with reference to Himself, 
"They that are whole need not a physician, but they that 
are sick." And afterwards, describing His ministry, He 
said, " Tell John how the blind see, the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised" (Luke 
vii. 22). That this summary of our Lord's healing power, 
by His own lips, should have been recorded by Luke only, 



LUKE A PHYSICIAN. 37 

is consistent with his sympathies as a physician. In study- 
ing the life of Christ, he had before him a congenial subject. 
The dignity of His power, His mastery over every form 
of disease, whether of the body or of the mind, the in- 
stantaneousness with which His cures were effected, and 
their accomplishment, generally only by a word, must have 
raised in Luke, the physician, a singular admiration of Him, 
and a curiosity concerning His conduct, which probably con- 
duced to his purpose of composing a Gospel. 

Dr Nathaniel Eobinson, a physician, has observed, " It 
is manifest from his Gospel, that Luke was both an acute 
observer, and had given even professional attention to all 
our Saviour's miracles of healing. Originally, among the 
Egyptians, divinity and physic were united in the same 
order of men ; so that the priest had the care of souls, and 
was also the physician. It was much the same under the 
Jewish economy. But after physic came to be studied by 
the Greeks, they separated the two professions. That a 
physician should write the history of our Saviour's life was 
appropriate, as there were divers mysterious things to be 
noticed, concerning which his education enabled him to form 
a becoming judgment " (" The Christian Philosopher," by 
N. Eobinson, M.D., 1757), 

For specialties denoting Luke's profession, it has been 
observed, that where Matthew, in describing the case of 
Peter's wife's mother, says she was " sick of a fever " (viii. 
14), Luke writes, "taken with a great fever" (iv. 38). 
And in our Lord's treatment of the case, where Matthew 
says, " He touched her hand and the fever left her," Luke 
writes, " and He stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and 
it left her." Again, where Matthew says, "there came a 
leper" (viii. 2), Luke writes, "a man full of leprosy" (v. 
12). Again, where Matthew says, " there was a man which 
had his hand withered " (xii. 10), Luke more specifically 
writes, "a man whose right hand was withered" (vi. 6). And 



38 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

in the treatment of this case, where Matthew says, " then 
saith He to the man, Stretch forth thy hand," Luke, as 
from a note-book, writes, " He said to the man, Eise up, 
and stand forth in the midst. And he arose, and stood 
forth. Then said Jesus," &c. " And looking round about 
upon them all, He said unto the man, Stretch forth thy 
hand. And he did so ; and his hand was restored whole as 
the other." Again, where Matthew says, " a woman which 
was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years " (ix. 20), 
Luke adds this characteristic supplement, " which had 
spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed 
by any " (viii. 43). And concerning the maid of whom 
Matthew and Mark say, " Jesus took her by the hand, 
and she arose," he adds emphatically, " and her spirit came 
again" (viii. 55). In a relation which is given only by 
himself, he describes, " a woman which had a spirit of in- 
firmity for eighteen years, and was bound together, and could 
in no wise lift up herself" (xiii. 11). And peculiar to his 
pages are the accounts of the cure of the dropsical man 
(xiv. 2, 3), the cleansing of the ten lepers (xvii. 12), and 
the healing of Malchus's ear (xxii. 51). It has also been re- 
marked that, as an important consideration, and in keeping 
with his professional character, Luke alone of the Evan- 
gelists indicates a medium of cure. He says, upon one occa- 
sion, " the power of the Lord was present to heal " (v. 17). 
And after an account of our Lord's dispossession of a 
diabolic spirit, he adds, " and they were all amazed at the 
mighty power of God " (ix. 43). Hereby he puts the cases of 
our Saviour's healing infinitely above the capacity of all other 
physicians whomsoever. Further, it is remarked by an 
American lawyer, " As a physician, Luke would know that 
deep mental distress frequently induces sleep. But he alone 
states that the sleep of the disciples in Gethsemane was in- 
duced by extreme sorrow (xxii. 45). And he has not failed 
to mention the bloody sweat of Jesus occasioned by inten- 



LUKE A PHYSICIAN. 39 

sity of agony (xxii. 44) " (Greenleaf s " Juridical Examina- 
tion of the Four Gospels," p. 144). Besides these examples 
from his Gospel, it has been added, in testimony of Luke's 
having been a physician, that in the case of the cure at the 
" Beautiful Gate " of the man lame from his birth, in speci- 
fyingthat the man's feet and ankle bones recovered strength, 
he uses the technical term apvou, a hammer, which the ankle 
bone was supposed to resemble (Acts iii. 7). And it 
has been likewise observed, that in his account of the dis- 
ease of which the father of Publius of Malta was afflicted, 
he employs the term dpsevreoid (Acts xxviii. 8). It was 
formerly objected that a dry climate like that at Malta could 
not produce such a complaint ; but the testimony of ph}^si- 
cians resident there is afforded to show that dysentery is 
by no means uncommon in that island in the present day. 

As no notice is found concerning Luke between the place 
of his nativity and his presence in Jerusalem, it will be 
allowable to enliven the interim by thoughts of what was 
his probable situation upon quitting Cyrene. Upon "the use 
of analogy and probable inference as auxiliaries in connect- 
ing the materials of biographic representation," it is re- 
marked in an " Essay on the Study and Composition of Bio- 
graphy,"* "Probable inferences often assume the validity 
of facts where their general tenor and consistency of char- 
acter seem to warrant the conclusion" (p. 171). 

If, as Herodotus reports, " The Libyans were the most 

* This essay, by James Field Stanfield, is a book of superlative value to 
those about to undertake a biographic composition. It is the present 
writer's regret that he so lately became acquainted with its merits. The 
book consists of 339 pages, in octavo, and was printed in Sunderland 
in 1813. The author was a native of Ireland. In his early days he was 
a mariner engaged in the African trade. Prefixed to his book is a dedica- 
tion to the Duke of Gloucester, President of the African Institution, 
and in a list of subscribers is the name of Thomas Clarkson. The 
author's son, the eminent painter and R.A., born in Sunderland, was 
named, after that philanthropist, Clarkson Stanfield. 



40 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

healthy people in the world," there would have been little 
inducement for a young physician to remain among them. 
It is not, however, to be conceived that Luke passed direct 
from Cyrene to Jerusalem. The important city of Alex- 
andria lay in the way, to whose school of medicine he must 
have been attracted. Theodoret says, " Alexandria was 
regarded as the metropolis, riot only of Egypt, but also of 
Libya." The city was originally colonised by Greeks and 
Jews invited to settle there, under circumstances favourable 
to the free action of commercial enterprise and the cultivation 
of literary pursuits. It was divided into three districts : 
one for the Jews with their synagogues ; one for the Greeks, 
in whose district was situated the palace and museum ; and 
the other for Egyptians, where was the Serapion, a temple 
containing a figure of that idol. The population of Alex- 
andria in the time of Luke amounted to 300,000 free citi- 
zens, and as many slaves and strangers. The sovereigns of 
Egypt patronised literature with greater ardour than the 
rulers of any other country, and by the continued favour 
of the Ptolemies, the city became, as a seat of learning, the 
most distinguished in the world. For nearly a thousand 
years the cloistered walks, public halls, and ample libraries 
of the college were the resort of the most eminent men of 
science. One of the principal founders of this school was 
Euclid, B.C. 320. Students from all countries were at- 
tracted by its advantages ; and no disciple of the philoso- 
phers was thought to have completed his studies without 
partaking its benefits. The term museum is said to have 
been first applied to that part of the royal palace of Alex- 
andria appropriated for the reception of the literary works 
collected for the use of students. Seven hundred thousand 
manuscript books constituted its glory. Philosophers were its 
librarians, among whom had been Callimachus and Eratos- 
thenes, both Cyrenians. ' ' Along with other branches of know- 
ledge, the science of medicine was cultivated in the Alex- 



LUKE A PHYSICIAN. 41 

andriau College with peculiar assiduity ; and the faculty is 
indebted for some very essential improvements to the pro- 
fessors of that school" (Dr Bostock's "History of Medicine"). 

If, therefore, Luke followed the usual custom of students, 
he would not fail to repair to Alexandria. And that he did 
so is intimated by the fact, that his writings partake largely 
of the Alexandrian dialect. Nor would he confine his 
studies there to lectures on the medical science, and in con- 
sulting the works of Hippocrates and other leading teachers 
of the healing art ; but he would likewise avail himself of 
the facilities offered for adding to his store of useful infor- 
mation generally. Here, better than in any other place, 
he might become acquainted with the various kinds of 
teaching, physical and metaphysical, which were current 
ere the doctrines of the gospel had disturbed the schools. 
He would find in what related to the discoveries and ap- 
pliances of science much that was interesting and worthy of 
study. Whilst, nevertheless, he would discover nothing 
among the wisest of all that were gathered to that emporium 
of knowledge, but what presented convincing evidence of 
the failure of the human understanding, unaided from above, 
to attain a knowledge of the character of the one true God 
and of man's relation to Him. 

At what time Luke first obtained an acquaintance with 
the Holy Scriptures, which teach that knowledge, cannot 
be traced. It will be an error to suppose that there were 
no virtuous heathen. There were always some who 
groaned under the burden and sin of idolatry ; and who, in 
the midst of its corruption, were witnesses for virtue. 
There were those " who, having not the law of God, did by 
nature the things contained in the law," and whose aspira- 
tions were higher and holier than what their idolatrous 
associations suggested. Such an aspiration, for instance, is 
that expressed by Cicero in his " Dream of Scipio/' " If I 
were now disengaged from my cumbrous body, and on the 



42 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

way to Elysium, and a divinity should meet me in my flight, 
and invite me to return, and offer to reanimate my body, I 
should unhesitatingly refuse his offer, so much rather would 
I go to Elysium, to reside with'Socrates and Plato, and all the 
ancient worthies, and spend my time in conversing with them." 
It is hoped that pleasures more blissful than those thus anti- 
cipated are reserved for virtuous heathen, through the yirtue 
of the one offering by Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. 
Even as the faithful Jew waited for the ' Consolation of 
Israel,' so the devout Gentile looked for the ' Desire of all 
nations.' And many more than are usually supposed were 
those Gentiles who thus hopefully looked for His advent. 
Of this number was Luke • and whether he first came to a 
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in Cyrene or in Alex- 
andria, a residence in Egypt had its advantages in a religious 
respect. He had thereby the opportunity to visit the scenes 
memorable as the theatre of the dreary bondage of Jacob's 
descendants, and of the signal plagues upon their oppressors 
which obtained their deliverance. It was here, too, that 
appeared the first translation from the Scriptures of Moses 
and the Hebrew prophets. Under the direction of Provi- 
dence it had been accomplishedaboutahundredyearsafterthe 
completion of the Old Testament canon, by learned rabbis, 
employed by a successor to the throne of the Pharaohs, and 
published in the language which then formed the principal 
medium of literature throughout all civilised countries. True, 
the proper benefit of that inestimable boon was long delayed. 
The mythical books of Egypt were, in the time of Luke, 
still in the hands of their guardians ; and although a few 
wise men had gone from the East to Bethlehem to welcome 
the Messiah, yet there was little perception of that gospel 
which, fulfilling the Hebrew oracles, should by and by close 
up the books of the priests for ever.* 

* " The Hermetic or Egyptian Scriptures consisted of forty-two 
books, six of which related to medicine." — Br Bostock. 



LUKE A PHYSICIAN. 43 

Nevertheless, there were some devout persons, both Jews 
and Gentiles, in all countries into which copies of the Greek 
version of the Old Testament Scriptures had come, who 
had profited by their publication. Many devout Gentiles 
became proselytes to Judaism through their means. And 
although the Jews, who were ordained to be the lights of 
the world and God's witnesses among the nations, were 
little disposed to fulfil their vocation, the design was never- 
theless accomplished through their captivities and emigra- 
tions. In Alexandria the Hebrew Scriptures were read 
every Sabbath in the several synagogues. And as only a 
very few individuals, or even families, would be able to 
possess copies of the Greek version of the Holy Scriptures, 
it must be supposed that the opportunity of reading them 
in the synagogues would have been afforded to the devout 
proselytes unacquainted with the Hebrew language, a pro- 
vision calculated to be of infinite benefit to all who were led 
by a gracious Providence to inquire after a knowledge of the 
God whom those Scriptures reveal. Happily Luke was 
of this number. And as he loved the truth, and sought to 
be confirmed in its certainty, and conformed to its purity, 
he would rejoice to retire to a sanctuary where reading the 
Scriptures and prayer formed the improving employments. 
To this privilege he was eligible, as also to all others 
appertaining to the synagogue, in virtue of his having been 
accepted as a proselyte. 

It would have been during Luke's residence in Alex- 
andria, extending to some years, that he obtained the 
friendship of Theophilus, to whom he afterwards dedicated 
his writings. Both being Gentiles, and both proselytes to 
the synagogue, the intensity of their fellowship was hereby 
heightened. 

That Luke's connexion with Egypt was a tradition in 
the early period of ecclesiastical symbolising, is shown by 
his attendant being represented in the apis, or the sacred 



U BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

bull. And that the tradition which prompted the symbol 
still survives, there is a curious exemplification in. a pictorial 
edition of " Les Evangiles" par De Sacy, published in Paris, 
1837. In this edition a portrait is given of the Evangelist, 
in which he is represented as an Egyptian, seated holding in 
his hands an open scroll of his Gospel. The portrait is sur- 
rounded with emblems characteristic of Egypt and Cyrene ; 
and beneath is a figure of the apis clothed with a pall. 



CHAPTER V. 

LUKE IN JERUSALEM. 

How many years Luke spent in Alexandria cannot be 
known. When he left Egypt he was already in middle 
life. Charles Taylor has conducted an argument by which 
he shows, very intelligibly, that Luke was at least fifteen 
years of age in the first year of the Christian era; and, 
therefore, about the age of forty-eight when he repaired to 
Jerusalem. Proselytes, as well as Jews, regarded a visit to 
the temple at some period of their lives, however distant 
their residence from Palestine, as a religious obligation. 
Upon the building of the temple by Solomon, a court was 
assigned to Gentiles ; and upon its consecration, the Divine 
regards were implored by the king upon those who should 
ever worship therein. Concerning this class of worshippers, 
little is noticed until the time of our Lord and his apostles, 
when it is found that their numerous attendance, from 
divers countries, at the festivals in Jerusalem, proved to be 
an important means of publishing to the world a knowledge 
of the facts of the gospel. But, besides this obligation 
upon him as a proselyte, the city had peculiar attractions to 
the devout worshipper. The Divine presence was in a 
special manner there. The believer had been taught from 
infant days to regard it with affection and reverence. Its 
historical associations were of superlative interest ; and 
with the odes concerning it of the Hebrew bards his 
memory was familiar. The distance from Alexandria to 
Jerusalem is above 300 miles ; and the mode of travelling, 



46 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

in companies, called caravans, is the same now as then. 
But the most easy, and the most customary, conveyance 
was by sea to the port of Joppa ; and from thence, a dis- 
tance of about forty miles, in companies to Jerusalem. All 
exult at the accomplishment of their pilgrimage. But 
especially inquisitive of a glance at the diadem-city are 
those who for the first time approach it, and whose de- 
vout affections have already beautified it in their imagin- 
ation. The different companies — Alexandrians, Cyrenians, 
Libyans, and Ethiopians — marshal off to their several 
quarters. Each had their synagogue in Jerusalem, as also 
had those from other countries, with residences adjoining, in 
the same manner as at present the Latin, Greek, Armenian, 
and other Christians have their convents, in which pilgrims 
are entertained. According to Josephus, there were more 
than 400 synagogues in Jerusalem. In the case of Luke's 
visit to Jerusalem was seen an eminent instance of the fulfil- 
ment of that word, " Also the sons of the stranger, that join 
themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name 
of the Lord, to be His servants, even them will I bring to 
my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of 
prayer " (Isa. lvi. 6, 7). All that met his eye was singular 
to the visitor. The temple would be the first object of 
reverent examination. And, although Luke had been 
accustomed to the sight of priests in Cyrene, and especially 
in Egypt, where these existed as a hereditary caste, yet the 
number and decorum of the priests of the Most High God, 
all in white garments, emblems of their holy functions, 
would have had an effect on his mind never before felt. 
The holy spot and its divine service were the attractions of 
all Jews throughout the world; never forgotten by those 
who had ever seen them, and always desired by those who 
had not. The city, by its side, seemed only to exist for 
the temple, and by it. Yet here, as almost everywhere 
else, the visitor found the frailty of human nature discovered 



L TIKE IN JER USA LEM. 47 

in that bane of many religious communities, extravagance,. 
Although the Jews had been weaned from idolatry by their 
captivities, they brought back with them other ways of the 
heathen. Like them, priest and people were found ranged 
in sects. Among the varieties of these, the visitor saw 
in the Essenes the type of the ascetic hermits of the desert. 
The Essenes of Palestine commonly lived in a state of 
celibacy ; they clothed in plainest garments, despised riches, 
and formed themselves into monastic fraternities. And 
such sacredness did they covet, that they held the being- 
touched by any one not belonging to their sect as an im- 
purity which required ablution. He beheld in the Pharisees 
a sect equally leavened with paganism, but taking another 
development. In these he saw a sect that courted observa- 
tion, its members being met in every street and place of 
public concourse, and whose numbers, and fantastic cos- 
tumes, and paces, imparted quite a scenic effect to the city. 
The Talmudists have given some pictures of them beyond 
what is seen in the Gospels. They have described, amongst 
others, " The Striking Pharisee, who, shutting his eyes, as 
he walked, to avoid the sight of women, often struck his 
head against the wall ; the Mortar Pharisee, who, that 
his contemplations might not be disturbed, wore a deep cap 
in the shape of a mortar, which would only permit him to 
look upon the ground at his feet ; and the Truncated Pha- 
risee, who, that he might appear to be in profound medita- 
tion, as if destitute of feet, scarcely lifted them from the 
ground, and so looked like a moving pillar " (Dr Enfield's 
" History of Philosophy"). Perhaps the conduct of these 
sectarians suggested that admonition of St Paul, " Be not 
righteous overmuch." It certainly was censured by that 
golden maxim and philosophic, " Let your moderation be 
known unto all men." 

Some persons have thought that Luke was among those 
Greeks who expressed a desire to see Jesus. But as that 



48 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

circumstance is not related by Luke, but by John (xii. 20), 
it may be dismissed. Dr Edward Burton, in his " Lectures 
on Ecclesiastical History," says, " There are many reasons 
which lead me to think that Luke was in Jerusalem at this 
time" (when Christ was crucified). To this opinion an 
objection stands in the front of Luke's Gospel. He there 
relates how he was indebted for his facts to eye-witnesses. 
That by this statement he virtually excludes himself from 
their position may justly be inferred. And that he had 
not seen Christ was the general opinion of the ancients. 

Many of the strangers who resorted to Jerusalem would 
not have directed their attention towards Jesus until the 
morning of his crucifixion. The circumstance of the execu- 
tion of a Jew for blasphemy, in the Jew's sense of the case, 
and for rebellion, in respect of the Roman Government, 
caused the scene, witnessed beyond the north gate of the 
city, to attract the presence of many, and to become a topic 
of conversation by all.* But when there succeeded the 
earthquake and the darkness at midday, and the alarm 
from the temple of the rending of the veil before the 
holy of holies, and the sight of the exposure of the dead 
in their sepulchres, by the rolling away of the portals, and 
the apparition of saints that had been deceased, by these 
phenomena public attention became intensely aroused. No 
such a Passover had ever been commemorated since its 
first institution in Egypt. A feeling of awe would pervade 
every party, as they assembled around their several festal 
tables. The coincidence of those marvels with the suffer- 
ings of the crucified, and the three-tongued inscription affixed 
to the cross, forced the observation of every one, natives and 
strangers, upon the person of Jesus. Nevertheless, that 

* For an argument for the site of the Crucifixion having been on the 
north side of Jerusalem, and therefore in confutation of the claims of the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the reader is referred to a tract by the 
present writer, entitled, " The Prophetic Site of Calvary Surveyed." 



LUKE IN JERUSALEM. 49 

the impression upon the rulers was far from salutary, is seen 
in the fact that the disciples sought close retirement through 
fear of the Jews ; and hence no opportunity was yet af- 
forded to the people of obtaining an elucidation of those 
mysterious occurrences. 

Fifty days intervened between the Passover and the Pen- 
tecost. A report of the scene and its accompaniments would 
have been carried by the Jews returning into the provinces 
and foreign parts, whereby curiosity was directed towards 
the next general gathering, which accordingly was attended 
by a concourse unusually great. 

Perhaps Luke arrived in Jerusalem in the interval of 
these fifty days. His intercourse, at the beginning, would 
chiefly have been with the Alexandrians and Cyrenians, 
Jews and proselytes, who seem, from his own narrative, to 
have been foremost in aiding the priests in their conspiracy 
against Christ, and in persecuting His followers. The first 
notices, therefore, which he received concerning Jesus would 
be perverted. The Pentecost was eminently a thanksgiving 
festival. Its law of observance is given in Lev. xxiii. 15-17, 
and Deut. xvi. 9-12. Herein was made a national acknow- 
ledgment of the faithfulness of Jehovah to His covenant in 
respect of the fruitfulness of the goodly land to which the 
visitor had come prepared to enjoy all its hallowing associa- 
tions. 

On the gladsome morning of the first day (so beautifully 
significant of the Christian Sabbath, being the first day of 
the week) the avenues to the temple were thronged at an 
early hour by Jews bearing their harvest-loaves. And lo ! 
the foremost had hardly approached the altar, and ere the 
first offering was presented, there was heard spoken again 
the ominous name of " Jesus of Nazareth ! " An anxious 
stillness instantly prevailed. All eyes glanced towards the 
gate through which Emmanuel had been often seen to enter. 
Anon the mystery was solved. The apostles, having just de- 

D 



50 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

scended from their retirement in the upper room where 
the Holy Ghost had baptized them as with fire, had come 
into the court of the temple. " Endued with power from 
on high," they instantly comply with their Master's injunc- 
tion. Beginning at the temple, they do not hesitate to face 
that great concourse, and stand forth prepared to turn the 
shame of the recent Paschal into a triumphant Pentecost. 
"With a dozen tongues wanting one, they expound in as 
many languages the marvels by which the city had been 
alarmed upon the occasion of the crucifixion of Jesus, and 
forthwith proclaim the gospel of the resurrection. 

A rumour of mysterious occurrences at the temple spread 
through the city with electric speed. Among the devout 
men from every country that had come to the festival were 
some from Cyrene (Acts ii. 10). With these Luke (if, as 
is supposed, he was at Jerusalem at this time) would hasten 
towards the temple. His inquiring mind would be intent 
to ascertain what the rumours truly signified. With the 
multitudes wending towards the scene, he would be ready 
to forbode some new marvel. Arriving at the temple, it 
was there, probably, that he first saw the apostles. Sur- 
rounded by crowds of earnest listeners, the humble Gali- 
leans, their countenances beaming with supernatural intelli- 
gence, and exercising a miraculous gift of speech, must have 
been objects of wonder unto him : nor less wonderful their 
revelation of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the 
grave. The answer of Peter to the mockers, his candid ex- 
planation of the phenomenon, his adducing the testimony of 
the prophets to its character, and also to the necessary re- 
surrection of the Holy One, formed a train of exposition 
which the education and intelligence of Luke could in- 
stantly appreciate. 

At this period, Luke's narrative of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles plainly touches his own history. And although setting 
himself in the shade, as became his character, yet the feel- 



L UKE IN JER USA LEAL 51 

ings with which he regarded the events he records are 
transparent. Approval of the doctrine and conduct of the 
apostles, and admiration of their mighty ministry, shine 
forth in every sentence of his pen. The entire structure of 
his narrative discovers this sentiment ; every fact related 
being so disposed as to co-operate with their teaching, and 
to accredit and commend it. Following the apostles step 
by step, and with undiminished admiration, he reports — 1. 
Peter's discourse in the court of the temple on the morning 
of Pentecost (ii. 14-40); 2. His exhortation before the 
Beautiful Gate on a subsequent evening, in company with 
John (iii. 12-18) ; 3. His testimony before the Sanhedrim 
(iv. 8-12) ; and 4. His second testimony before the same 
tribunal, the other apostles being present, after his deliver- 
ance from prison by an angel. He relates, concerning " the 
signs and wonders " which accompanied their ministry — 
1. The coming of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples, and 
its effects (ii. 2-4) ; 2. The healing of the lame man at the 
gate of the temple (iii. 2-8) ; 3. The shaking of the place 
wherein the disciples were assembled for prayer (iv. 31) ; 

4. The sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira (v. 5-10) ; 

5. The healing of a multitude of sick persons by the hands 
of the apostles (v. 12-16) ; and 6. Peter and John's re- 
lease from prison by an angel (v. 19). And how deep 
was the interest which he took in the success of the apostles' 
ministry is shown by his notation of its great results. 

Nor less manifest is his sympathy with the infant Church 
by his notices of the opposition that was made to it, and 
concerning which he relates — 1. That the priests, with the 
captain of the temple and Sadducees, laid hands on Peter and 
John in the temple (iv. 1-3) ; 2. That on the morrow the 
Sanhedrim sat in judgment on them (iv. 5-7) ; 3. That the 
same apostles were again apprehended and imprisoned by 
the Sadducees (v. 17) ; 4. And that at another time they 
were beaten (v. 40) ; 5. He describes minutely the martyr- 



52 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

dom of Stephen ; 6. And he tells of the scattering abroad of 
the disciples from Jerusalem by reason of persecution (xi. 19). 

These details strongly illustrate an interest taken in the 
fortunes of the infant Church inspired by personal observa- 
tion. The Gentiles of Egypt are often subjects of Scripture 
prophecy. It was written, " Ethiopia " (by which was 
meant the entire of North Africa) " shall soon stretch out 
her hands unto God" (Ps. lxviii. 31). Luke became an 
earnest of the fulfilment of that prophecy. His profession 
of faith in the historical facts of redemption is expressed in 
the note prefixed to his Gospel, as also the profession of his 
fellowship with the believers in Christ. Hence, in his ac- 
count of the character and conduct of these is found his 
own portraiture. Having been baptized in the name of 
Jesus, according to divine prescription, the promise is ful- 
filled, " Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost" (Acts. ii. 38). 
In all these privileges Luke shared, and in their exercises 
bore his part. Under the heavenly influence experienced, 
all things became new to him and in him. He was 
among the first upon whom the new dispensation dawned. 
By embracing the gospel, his knowledge of the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures was not superseded, nor his reverence for 
them abated ; rather their value was enhanced. He now 
found them illustrated and verified by the advent of the 
" Desire of all nations," and glorified by the illumination of 
the Holy Ghost. The facts which he was favoured to wit- 
ness opened a new medium by which to study the Holy 
Scriptures, and moved him to higher admiration both of 
the wisdom and the grace revealed in them. 

So likewise now did the temple, to which he had come to 
worship, appear in a new aspect to him. It was no longer 
the place for offerings for sin, but wherein daily to present 
the sacrifice of praise ; especially praise for the abolition of 
all other kinds of sacrifice, " by the one offering of Christ 
once for all for the sins of the whole world." 



L UKE IN JER USA LEX. 53 

Luke's relation to society became also new. Counting all 
things loss for Christ, he left the company of those among 
whom his Lord was denied. He forsook the quarters of 
the unbelieving Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and casting 
in his lot with the disciples, he repaired to their upper 
rooms, and henceforth took his commons with them. 

In the absence of the reasons for the belief of Luke's 
presence in Jerusalem soon after the crucifixion, to which 
Dr Burton refers, but only one of which he has specified, 
the following summary is submitted : — 

1. Luke does not, as in the case of his Gospel, profess in 
his account of the Acts of the Apostles to be indebted to 
others for information. 

2. His narrative of the Acts bears the marks of an ob- 
server by the minuteness of its details. 

3. It discovers an intimacy with the persons whose his- 
tory it records. 

4. The deep interest discovered by the writer in their 
proceedings, intimates that he was a party in them. 

5. The studious notation of circumstances which natu- 
rally interested him as a Gentile, shows opportunity for ob- 
servation. 

6. It transpires in Acts xi. 19, 20, collated with xiii. 1, 
" that Luke was at Jerusalem prior to the martyrdom of 
Stephen " (Dr Burton). 

7. He must have collected the materials for his Gospel at 
Jerusalem before his retirement to Antioch, because after- 
wards the eye-witnesses to whom, in the preface thereto, 
he professes himself indebted, were never again found 
together. 

8. From the period of that retirement his account of 
transactions in Jerusalem ceases, except so far as they were 
occasionally connected with the affairs of the Church in 
other places. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 

The inquiry now arises, How was Luke employed during 
the years that he resided in Jerusalem 1 He was forbidden, 
as a Gentile, to engage as a public teacher in the assemblies 
of the faithful in Palestine. He would therefore have been 
known only as a disciple and a physician. But that he was 
engaged in another pursuit besides the business of his 
profession, is revealed in the first paragraph that proceeded 
from his pen. In early editions of his Gospel this para- 
graph appears distinguished from the text. The writer 
of this biography possesses two Latin copies of the New 
Testament, one printed at Antwerp in 1526, and the other 
at Lyons in 1540, in both of which it is so printed. 

In the Antwerp copy, the Gospel of St Luke begins in 
this form : — 

EVANGELIUM SECUN 

DUM LUCAM. 

PRAEFATIO EJUSDEM. 

Quoniam quidem mnlti conati sunt ordinare narrationem, qttce in 
nobis complete sunt rerum, sicut tradiderunt nobis, qui ab initio ipsi 
viderunt, et ministri fuertint sermonis, visum est et mihi assecuto omnia 
a principio diligenter ex ordine tibi scribere, opiinie Theophile, ut cognoscas, 
eorum verborum, de quibus erudiius es vceritatem. 

CAPUT I. 
Jr uit in diebus Herodis regis Judccce, sacerdos quidam, etc. 



LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 55 

This edition is a duodecimo, printed throughout in neat 
italic type. The initial letter of every chapter is orna- 
mental j that which begins this chapter is an engraving 
which represents a fox in a pulpit dressed in a monk's 
cowl, in the act of addressing a congregation of geese, a 
cock being perched before him upon the middle stroke of 
the letter F. 

The copy printed at Lyons contains, first, Jerome's notice 
concerning Luke, after which is — 

PRAEFATIO. 

Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt, ordinare narrationem, etc. 

Beneath this paragraph is a symbolical engraving, 
being the front view of an ox's head, on its poll a winged 
cap, from which on either side hangs the sacred pall, folded 
ever the expanded horns, each end terminated with a string 
of beads. On the next page — 

EVANGELIUM. 

SECUNDUM LUCAM. 

Under this title is a print representing Luke in his 
study, and an ox recumbent behind him. Then — 

CAP. I. 

Fuit in diebus Herodis Regis Judsese, sacerdos quidem, etc. 

This edition is in 24mo, and is illustrated with several 
neat woodcuts. 

Obscured by becoming conjoined with the text, this 
paragraph ceased to be regarded in its true character of a 
private letter written to accompany the copy of the Gospel 
sent to the friend who is named the rein. Dr Adam Clarke 



56 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

is one of the few commentators who regard it in this light. 
Letters often afford important materials in biographical 
compositions, especially those letters which lay open the 
thoughts and purposes of the writer. Such a precious 
document does the biographer possess in this letter of 
Luke. Herein the Evangelist reveals his mind when con- 
templating his undertaking; he indicates the means he had 
taken to prepare his materials ; and he points out as by a 
prospectus what was to be expected in the book completed. 
Bengel beautifully remarks concerning it, "The preface 
savours of recent joy, such as would be felt upon coming to 
the knowledge of joyful facts. " But more than this, it 
discovers the Cyrenian's diligence in seeking to increase 
his knowledge of those facts. Few are the lines of this 
letter, but several are its particulars. 

1. The letter notices preceding writers. " Forasmuch as 
many have taken in hand to set forth a declaration" 
(anataxasthai diegesin, to compose a narration). This refer- 
ence to preceding writers of accounts concerning Jesus 
Christ is a piece of intelligence that transpires in no other 
place in the New Testament. It agrees with what would 
have been presumed. It would have been expected that 
some accounts concerning the life and death of Jesus would 
have been put into circulation. Those accounts would 
have been of various extent and degrees of merit ; but of 
their value Luke gives no judgment. In none of them was 
the subject treated in a manner adapted to his conceptions 
of it. The defects of the most of them are to be inferred 
from the quality of his own narrative. All those accounts 
soon dropped into oblivion. "The expression ' have taken in 
hand ' (observes Dr Oosterzee) is happily chosen to enhance 
the importance and difficulty of the work." Of the Gospels, 
only Matthew's was written before Luke's, and that had 
been confined to the use of Jews, chiefly in Palestine. 

2. The letter intimates the topics treated in the book — 



LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 57 

" Those things which are most surely believed among us " 
(ton peplerophoremenon, ample evidence). The things be- 
lieved were those things which had come to pass con- 
cerning Jesus of Nazareth ; those things which Luke 
afterwards described when he spoke of his Gospel as "a 
treatise of all that Jesus began to do and to teach " (Acts 
i. 1). This sure belief of himself and his associates in 
those things is an important affirmation. Made by one 
professionally accustomed to inquiry, and also to ponder 
the evidence of things submitted to his consideration, this 
affirmation stands for a pledge of the integrity of the 
accompanying narrative. And this pledge being given to 
a friend sensible of its value, Theophilus would thereby be 
prepared to repose the same belief in the facts of the narra- 
tive that the writer himself had done, as they had been 
related to him. 

3. The letter mentions the sources ivhence Luke derived his 
facts. " Even as they were delivered unto us, by those 
who, from the beginning, were eye-witnesses and ministers 
of the Word" (op arches aufoptai, persons who, having 
themselves seen, were thereby acquainted with the circum- 
stances; uperetai genomenoi tou logon, "ministers of the 
things they declared" — Cranmer). To these the Lord had 
said, tl Ye shall be witnesses unto me." From many of 
this class Luke would have received intelligence by private 
discourse, and by listening to what they reported in public 
assemblies. It is therefore intimated, in this clause, that 
Luke preserved notes of what he heard from the lips of 
these several witnesses. Never again could the facilities 
for gaining the information which he sought be so favour- 
able as now. The first fellowship of believers was in Jer- 
usalem. Here was fulfilled the first series of promises that 
compacted the holy community. Admitted to their assem- 
blies, Luke had the opportunity to listen to the reminis- 
cences that were frequently reported therein concerning 



58 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the Lord. He became acquainted with individuals com- 
posing the company, from whom he obtained particulars 
whilst they were fresh in the memory. From simple ques- 
tions put to these in behalf of his own personal growth in 
the knowledge of Christ, his inquiries, being extended, 
soon took the character of researches. At first, his wit- 
nesses were found among the company of the 120 men- 
tioned Acts i. 15. Then they were some of the 3000 
mentioned Acts ii. 41. Then they were some of the mul- 
titude, both of men and women, mentioned Acts v. 14. 
And then, perhaps, they were some of " the great number 
of priests that became obedient to the faith," mentioned 
Acts vi. 7. In this multiplication of believers, obtained 
from different classes, and even from that class that had 
been the most censorious observers of the Lord's conduct, 
there was found a fulfilment of that word, " One soweth 
and another reapeth." For it must be supposed that a 
great many of these converts had been prepared for the 
prompt reception that they yielded to the arguments of the 
apostles by having previously listened to the teaching of 
Jesus, and by having beheld some of His divine actions. 
And so they were competent witnesses for Luke. More- 
over, his witnesses included all persons with whom he be- 
came acquainted, who could communicate to him an intel- 
ligible account of what they had heard and seen in the 
ministry of Jesus. Some of those were rulers, some scribes, 
some were citizens, and some plebeians. Some were per- 
sons who, having followed Jesus from place to place, lis- 
tening with wonder and delight to His gracious words, had 
now cast in their lot with the saints ; persons who had en- 
joyed His conversation, having welcomed Him to their 
houses ; persons who had received benefits of healing, and 
the mercy of the forgiveness of sins ; persons who had 
shielded Him from the malice of His enemies (there were 
several of these) ; persons who beheld His humiliation 



LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 59 

unto death ; and persons who were of the companies to 
whom He had shown Himself after His resurrection. Op- 
portunities for obtaining important information, and of that 
kind which enabled Luke to say that he had traced the 
things related by him from the beginning, accrued through 
the circumstance of his profession. It is well known that 
a physician is a privileged person in Eastern countries. 
He alone of men easily obtains access to the female mem- 
bers of a household. So that many anecdotes illustrating 
the domestic life of Orientals, not elsewhere to be read, are 
found in the pages of travellers being physicians. Much of 
the interest of Dr Kichardson's admirable volumes of travels 
in Egypt and Palestine, in company with Lord Belmore, are 
of this nature. When, however, had ever a traveller such 
a subject for his researches as had Luke 1 The ministry of 
Jesus, by the testimony of all the evangelical writers, was 
a gospel of tenderness. The meek and confiding were His 
peculiar care. Among these, from the character of their 
sex, were women. The daughters of Abraham found His 
quickest sympathy. He removed their afflictions ; He 
blessed their infants ; He restored life to their dead. He 
otherwise, too, put honour upon women. He was born of 
a woman. He sanctioned by His presence a bridal-feast. 
He first revealed Himself as the Messiah to a woman, 
whereby she became the first that announced His advent 
to the Samaritans. He appeared first after His resurrec- 
tion to a woman, whom also He appointed to be the first 
minister to announce the fact thereof to His disciples. In- 
deed, it is apparent that for a considerable part of Luke's 
Gospel the reader is indebted to women. The whole of the 
first section of his narrative is of this character. From 
whose lips, for instance, but those of women, could have 
been obtained the notices of the domestic scenes which re- 
late to the birth, first of John, a ad then of Jesus 1 The pri- 
vate character and the minuteness in detail of these discover 



60 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

plainly their source. Who described to the historian the 
incidents, together with the scene in the temple, upon pre- 
senting the Infant with an offering to the Lord, the bless- 
ing there pronounced by Simeon, and the piercing words 
addressed to herself (ii. 35) 1 Who spake to the historian 
of the child's growth in stature, and advancement in wisdom 
and grace, but the fond mother 1 And who described to 
him the visit of the Holy Youth to Jerusalem, along with 
His missing and His recovery, but she who had sought Him 
sorrowing 1 Who reported to him the first words of Jesus 
which are found recorded 1 They were spoken to His 
mother : " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's 
business 1 " And who informed him that Mary kept all 
these things and pondered them in her heart — an observa- 
tion twice repeated 1 But Mary was in Jerusalem when 
Luke was engaged in prosecuting his researches there. 

It is remarked by Charles Taylor, "The genealogy in 
Luke was a private document ; and its insertion adds to 
the proofs of confidence by Mary in Luke, since from her 
certainly he received it ; while his preservation of it coin- 
cides with that accuracy we have attributed to his charac- 
ter" (" Fragments," 321). 

And, further, with respect to Luke's indebtedness to female 
witnesses, the expression, so deeply natural, "Blessed is the 
womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked," 
only a woman would have repeated to him as a piece of 
intelligence (xi. 27). It is related by Luke only that, in 
one of his circuits, there followed our Lord, " Mary Magda- 
lene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and many 
other women, who ministered to him of their substance " 
(viii. 2, 3). And this grateful devotion of women, conspic- 
uous to the last, must have treasured up incidents which 
none but themselves would be able to communicate. 

4. The letter commends the writer's position, as an argu- 
ment for his undertaking. "It seemed good to me also to 



LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 61 

write." This slight allusion to his situation with respect to 
the subject was sufficient for his friend; and its force as a 
reason for Luke's undertaking equally appears to the reader 
of his biography. It is perceived that the clause expanded 
signifies, " It seemed good to me to write this narrative, 
who stand in a different relation to the subject of it than 
do those writers to whom I refer • to me, a Gentile and a 
foreigner in Palestine ; to me, who am, nevertheless, in- 
finitely interested in the history of the life and death of 
Jesus, and in its fulfilment of the Scriptures of Moses and the 
prophets, of which Scriptures I have been a devout student ; 
to me who, having resided several years in Jerusalem, have 
had opportunities which few persons, not being Jews, have 
possessed for obtaining the necessary information ; to me, 
whose profession enables me to appreciate the healing 
miracles of the Lord ; to me who, on all these accounts, 
am competent to judge impartially concerning the particu- 
lars which I have obtained and now relate." 

5. The letter declares the extent of the writer's researches. 
" Having had (obtained) perfect understanding of all 
things" (jxirekoloKfheJcoti, having investigated step by step 
the things). The word occurs 2 Tim. iii. 10: "Thou 
hast fully known my doctrine " from the very first — 
(anothen, from the highest point). Here the Evangelist 
seems to allude to the matters related in the two first 
chapters of his Gospel. Moreover, from this representation 
it is to be inferred that Luke's inquiries, being co-extensive 
with his subject, they therefore reached beyond Jerusalem. 
As every intelligent sojourner in that metropolis takes the 
opportunity to accomplish a tour through the provinces, 
the Cyrenian would assuredly avail himself of the same 
benefit. Moreover, as his devotion to the Old Testament 
Scriptures would have prompted a desire to visit their 
scenes, the requirements of his design as a historian would 
have determined him to perform the pilgrimage. The 



62 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

motives which brought him to Jerusalem would have 
operated with as much force to induce a resolve to visit the 
scenes where many of the prophecies relating to the ministry 
of the Messiah had been fulfilled. Besides, the plan of his 
book, being founded upon the obtaining the reports of eye- 
witnesses, it was necessary to embrace a sphere as wide as 
the matter sought. The greatest part of his Gospel is 
occupied with the relation of circumstances that occurred 
away from Jerusalem. And as in the places of their 
occurrence the chief number of his witnesses would be 
found, so many passages of his Gospel bear the signature 
of being so derived. In a tour through the provinces, 
Luke would have visited Jericho, about twenty miles dis- 
tant from Jerusalem. There, perhaps, might still have re- 
sided Zaccheus ; and there, too, the inquirer might have 
been informed by witnesses of the scene concerning the 
blind men who received their sight when the Lord passed 
though that city. From thence, travelling by the banks of 
the Jordan, now on the eastern, then on the western, he would 
have met in divers places persons who had attended the 
ministry and witnessed the miracles of the Lord in those 
districts. There are said to have been 400 towns and 
villages in Lower Galilee, which was more level, fertile, and 
populous than the Upper Galilee. Arriving in the former 
district, with what feelings would he have looked upon the 
lake which had borne its Lord upon its waves ! And with 
what gratification would he have traversed the shores 
where had been gathered the great crowds, and the most 
admiring, that had followed the Lord, listening to His 
teaching, and receiving benefits from His hands, correspond- 
ing with the words of the prophet, applied to Himself by 
the Lord in his first-reported discourse : " The Spirit of 
the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor," &c. (Isa. lxv.) There, in 
the towns adjacent, in Tiberias, in Bethsaida, in Chorazin, 



LUKE'S RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 63 

and in the Lord's own city, Capernaum, where so many of 
His mighty acts had been wrought, numerous would have 
been the disciples who would have rejoiced to communicate 
their experiences of His favour to the pious inquirer ; among 
whom might have been some of the five hundred disciples 
who at once had seen the Lord, according to His own 
appointment made to them in Galilee before His decease. 
Fruits of Luke's journey or journeys through the Galilees 
distinctly appear. Scenes and events in the Lord's ministry, 
consisting of some of the richest of Luke's gatherings, and 
only described by his pen, are comprised in the eleventh to 
the seventeenth chapters of his Gospel consecutively. They 
are continued also in the eighteenth chapter ; but some of 
the relations in this chapter are in common with other 
Evangelists. 

6. The letter refers to the methodical arrangement of the 
materials of the Gospel. " To write unto thee in order," 
that is, in a series or narration (kathexes, " in order," being- 
connected with diegesis, " a narration "). By this clause it is 
represented that, preparation having been made by re- 
search, the design contemplated was accomplished by the 
reduction of particulars to a descriptive treatise. And 
more than this, it embraced the construction of an im- 
portant historical argument, the particulars being cast in- 
to groups rather than into a strictly chronological arrange- 
ment. Luke had been a devout expectant of the fulfilment 
of the divine prophecies relating to Messiah. He believed 
that many of these had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus ; 
and his treatise was directed to present a luminous proof 
thereof, by the exhibition of facts which he had gathered, 
and with accuracy weighed. 

7. The letter mentions the name of the person to ivhom it 
was addressed, and intimates his position in society. " Most 
excellent Theophilus." It is quite inadmissible to attribute 
to Luke, as is sometimes done, the having placed a fictitious 



64 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

name in a note prefixed to a book, asserted to be a relation 
of carefully-ascertained facts ; and it is also contrary to all 
propriety to suppose that the word hratiste, a title of dignity, 
was not as distinctively applied to the person addressed, as 
it was by Claudius Lysias when he addressed Felix (Acts 
xxiii. 26), and by St Paul when he addressed Festus 
(xxvi. 25). Hence, Dr Lardner says, Theophilus was a 
man of senatorian rank, and possibly a governor, forasmuch 
as Luke calls him "most excellent." And furthermore, 
Bengel says, " Theophilus belonged to Alexandria, as the 
ancients testify." And this allocation corresponds with 
Luke's progress from Cyrene. The friendship between Luke 
and Theophilus would have begun in the Egyptian metro- 
polis, where they prosecuted their studies together; and 
from the fellowship in which they are here found, it may 
be thought, as it has been already intimated, that they 
had been at the same time devout students of the Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament, in the Alexandrian version. 

8. The letter states the practical design of the look trans- 
mitted to this friend. " That thou mightest know the cer- 
tainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed." 
Having begun the letter with an expression of his own 
and of his associates' assured belief of the things of his 
research and scrutiny, the writer concludes with an ex- 
pression in behalf of his correspondent, in language which 
seems to be adopted from that by which Solomon recom- 
mended the study of his Proverbs : " That I might make 
thee know the certainty of the words of truth ; that thou 
mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto 
thee" (Prov. xxii. 2). Theophilus was already a be- 
liever. As intimate friends, he and Luke would sometimes 
have corresponded by letters. In these Luke would have 
given his friend some notices of his situation since his 
arrival in Jerusalem, and of his experience of the grace re- 
ceived upon an acceptance of the doctrine of the apostles 



RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 65 

concerning the Messiah. And thus, if by no other means, 
Theophilus would have been partly instructed in those 
things wherein he is by this treatise more fully informed, 
the design here being similar to St John's, when he 
wrote, " What we have heard declare we unto you, that 
you also may have fellowship with us, whose fellowship is 
with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ." Here, 
then, is found an example, at that period, of two earnest 
students engaged in acquiring the knowledge of the mystery 
which had been hid for ages — the one being in a situation 
in which he could only have received a partial degree of 
information concerning those facts which the other, having 
had ample opportunities to collect, had both obtained and 
digested. 

This letter is of sovereign use in defence of Luke 
against the misrepresentations to which his character and 
writings are subjected by certain critics. Only a few speci- 
mens of these will suffice to illustrate this remark. 

1. The oldest of these misrepresentations is that which 
says that Luke's Gospel was composed from Paul's dicta- 
tion. Often refuted, yet this error is still repeated. It is 
said, in a recent edition of " The Greek Testament, with 
Notes," " Luke learned his Gospel from St Paul, which that 
Apostle could only have received in such accuracy, con- 
sisting of numerous minute particulars, from revelation" 
(Webster and Wilkinson, i. 235). 

2. Another misrepresentation is that which asserts that 
Luke's Gospel was composed from a variety of manuscripts, 
or, as technically said, of " existing documents." This 
manner of treating Luke's Gospel was uncustomary in 
England until, forty-five years ago, a translation of Dr 
Schleiermacher's " Critical Essay on the Gospel of St Luke " 
was given by Dr Connop Thirlwall, now Bishop of St 
David's. In that work, after a dissection of the Gospel, 
the author concludes by asserting, " From beginning to end, 



66 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

Luke is no more than a compiler and arranger of docu- 
ments which he found in existence, and which he allows to 
pass unaltered from his hand. His merit is that of ar- 
rangement, and his having admitted scarcely any pieces 
but what were peculiarly genuine and good, the fruit of a 
judiciously-conducted investigation and well-weighed choice." 
This sentiment has since been echoed by many writers, 
German, French, and English. 

3. Eenan says, " The historical value of Luke's Gospel is 
weaker than the others, because it is a document at second- 
hand." Again, he says, " Luke is less an evangelist than a 
biographer of Jesus — a harmonist and corrector." And 
again, " He is, in fact, a compiler, who had not seen the wit- 
nesses " (" Vie de Jesus"). 

4. By Mr Froude it is asserted, " Of the Gospels separ- 
ately, the history is lost in legend." " The apostles and 
apostolical fathers never mention Luke as having written a 
history of our Lord at all" ("Short Essays on Great 
Subjects," vol. i.) 

All these opinions are manifestly opposed to the profes- 
sions of Luke in his letter to Theophilus. 

1. The opinion that Luke obtained his Gospels from 
revelations made to St Paul is quite inconsistent with the 
tenor of this letter. Moreover, if his facts were so derived, 
is it conceivable that such a circumstance would not have 
been mentioned by such an accurate writer as this Evan- 
gelist ? Certainly, a derivation so remarkable had been 
worthy the attention of Theophilus, in a letter written ex- 
pressly to inform him of the motives inducing the compo- 
sition of the Gospel, and of the sources whence its facts 
were obtained. Luke obtained his facts from eye-witnesses 
of them. But Paul was not such a witness. The promise 
made to the disciples relating to facts, spake of a remem- 
brance of what they had previously known. Whereas Paul 
first saw the Just One and heard His voice when travelling 



RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE, 67 

from Jerusalem to Damascus. Then commenced his know- 
ledge of Jesus, and then he received the first intimation of 
the gospel it should be his province to testify. What that 
was which he called " my Gospel " is explained in Romans 
xvi. 25, and more fully in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the 
third chapter. 

2. The criticism that calls the sources from whence 
Luke derived his facts documents, is opposed to the clause 
wherein they are declared to be eye-witnesses. For those 
witnesses were obviously persons, and not " documents." 

3. The assertion that Luke had not seen his witnesses is 
irreconcilable with a fair interpretation of the words of the 
letter. For no mention being made of another mode of 
obtaining his facts, the plain signification of the statement 
must be taken, namely, that the delivery of the facts to Luke 
by eye-witnesses was personal and oral. Perspicuity must 
have been intended in a letter expressly composed to 
explain the principles upon which the Gospel was written. 

4. The assertion that " Luke is never mentioned by the 
apostles and apostolical fathers " is disingenuous at least. 
It is disingenuous, because he is spoken of by St Paul, to- 
gether with his Gospel, although not by his name, 1 Cor. 
viii. 18. And then, the apostolical fathers were not histo- 
rians : they were not critics. They did not foresee that 
some of their writings would survive, and become import- 
ant sources of appeal. Yet it happens that Ignatius 
and Polycarp, although they do not mention the name 
of Luke, each distinctly quote passages from his writings. 
And close after their age Luke is named, and his Gospel 
mentioned, by Irenseus ; and soon after him by Tertullian, 
as related in the second page of this biography. 

Here a testimony respecting the literary character of 
Luke, written long before those criticisms were penned, by 
an ingenuous sympathiser with our subject, comes in grace- 
fully. Charles Taylor observes : " If a writer, in his general 



68 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

character, be studious, particular, punctual, we pay a defer- 
ence to his current discourse ; and if he affirm a thing, we 
rest satisfied of its truth and reality. But persons of strict 
accuracy seldom trust to their memory entirely on import- 
ant affairs ; they make memoranda, or keep some kind of 
journal, in which they minute transactions as they rise, 
so that at after-periods they can refer to events thus re- 
corded, and refresh their memories by consulting their for- 
mer observations. I believe, too, that this is customary, 
chiefly among men of letters, men of liberal and enlarged 
education, men who are conversant with science, and w T ho 
know the value of hints made on the spot pro re nata. My 
proposition is, that Luke the Evangelist was a person of 
learning, of accuracy of character, and that he instanced 
this by keeping a journal of events, of which we have traces 
in his writings." 

But to proceed a step further in this vindication. Upon 
whatever subject God requires our belief, He sets before us 
proper evidence. But hypothetic documents bear no such 
character. Luke's own " assured belief " was grounded 
upon the evidence of eye-witnesses ; and the faith of all 
that have received his Gospel has been grounded upon the 
correctness of Luke's report of facts received from them. 
Three of the Evangelists were personal disciples of Christ. 
And weight is added to the testimony of these three by 
the corroboration of a fourth writer, who, from another 
position, undertook to collect and digest facts derived from 
the reminiscences of witnesses, of whatever situation, and of 
either sex. And this he did from the very natural motive, 
that at present being a foreigner, and prospectively, that 
other readers of his book, being also foreigners, might know 
the certainty of those things that are related in his pages 
concerning the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. The 
other Evangelists wrote without any foreign inducement for 
their selection of facts. They were of the same nation as 



RESEARCHES IN PALESTINE. 69 

our Lord, the same worship, habits, and customs. Their 
views were limited by their nationality. And herein is 
the wisdom of Divine Providence to be admired, that 
another penman should be admitted into the prophetic 
circle whose sympathies embraced the larger class to be 
gathered into the Church under the new dispensation, and 
who regarded the subject of his researches with a wider 
observation. And the result corresponds with this differ- 
ence. The particulars preserved by Luke, which are unre- 
ported by the other Evangelists, comprise a full half of his 
Gospel. Such an inquirer was advantageous for the cause 
of Christian evidence ; whilst his antecedents as a Gentile 
and a physician combined to give a distinctive charm to 
this book of Holy Writ. Providential was the presence of 
such a convert in Jerusalem at the period of his residence 
there ; and great the occasion for gratulation found in the 
preservation of this letter, in which is related the nature 
and extent of his researches during that period. 

Had there existed only one of the Gospels, how great a 
curiosity would it have been, and how great an exercise of 
faith to yield credence to its account of the teaching of 
such an unprecedented character as that of Jesus, and to the 
marvellous display of His power recorded ! And had that 
one Gospel been either of the three narratives written by 
Jews, or the one written by a Gentile, in either case, with 
what prejudice would it have been regarded, and how mer- 
cilessly would it have been treated by critics ! That there 
are four Gospels, composed by four several writers, at dif- 
ferent periods and in different places, and that their nar- 
ratives harmonise in every material point, is a cause for 
exultant praise to the Divine Inspirer. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The First Period. 



Never has the Acts of the Apostles been expounded from 
the point of view of the writer's own person. Essays en- 
titled Luke and his Gospel there are ; but none on Luke 
and his Acts of the Apostles. Yet in this department 
of sacred history he stands alone. No other writer had 
taken in hand to set forth a declaration of the things 
recorded in this book. 

Luke was detained in Jerusalem by the strong interest 
he felt in the circumstances that related to the life of Jesus, 
and likewise by the new views he had acquired and the 
associations that had engaged his affections. In the ex- 
citing scenes by which he was surrounded, he discerned a 
signal reformation of the Church of God. He recognised 
the connexion of those scenes with the previous history of 
Jesus, and he beheld how His ministry was being supple- 
mented by that of His apostles. Concerning the ministry 
of these it is briefly said by Mark, "And they went forth, 
and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, 
and confirming the word with signs following." But Luke 
undertook to fill up this outline by a circumstantial develop- 
ment. Favourable opportunities are fleeting : the diligent 
secure their advantages. He had now become acquainted 
with the principal agents of the work of regeneration pro- 
eeding. By the reports of these, added to what he 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 71 

himself witnessed, he obtained fair and accurate intelligence 
of all the most important incidents relating to that work. 

The city of Jerusalem became to him an observatory. 
Accustomed, as he had been, to the elevation of Cyrene, 
it may even be thought that both his convenience and 
taste would have led him to prefer a residence on the Hill 
of Zion. Looking from thence, all appeared to him like 
classic ground. Every prospect furnished some illustration 
of the histories, familiar to him, which represented the 
ingress and egress of kings and prophets, and of their 
proceedings in and around the city. Whilst the entire 
scenery was invested with a new halo, upon a thought of 
the recent presence of Jesus therein. 

In this situation Luke was near to the upeiion, or upper 
chamber, where the apostles assembled with the brethren ; 
and also was in the neighbourhood of one or more of 
the households of the faithful. To obtain a knowledge 
of the facts upon which Christianity is founded, and to 
give that knowledge a historical fixture, had become the 
leading object of his life. In his study would now be 
opened two books : one for a series of notes, being 
materials for his Gospel, and another wherein to insert 
relations designed for his Acts of the Apostles. Those 
collections, it may be supposed, were made simultaneously : 
those for the Gospel derived from eye-witnesses, and those 
for the Acts, some from eye-witnesses and some from his 
own observation. The plan of tracing things from the 
beginning, adopted in the Gospel, was likewise followed 
here. First there is afforded a relation of events connected 
with the pre-Ascension period. Besides those particulars 
related at the close of his Gospel, Luke had obtained some 
others, also different from those related by other Evangelists. 
This new relation extends from the fourth to the twelfth 
verse of the first chapter. Herein are rehearsed the last 
words addressed by the apostles to Jesus, and the last 



72 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

words of Jesus to them, "both being characteristic to the 
utmost. Theirs expressed their desire for a national re- 
storation : His directed them to a sublimer hope and enter- 
prise, saying, " But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be ivitnesses unto me 
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth" (i. 8). Simple words, but of 
profound import. Reported to Luke, they fixed his atten- 
tion. They were prophetic of a proceeding and of a result 
which touched his sympathies, and which at once provoked 
and sustained his curiosity. " Ye shall receive power, . . . 
ye shall be witnesses . . . unto the uttermost parts of the 
earth." Upon this assurance and this charge of the Lord 
to His apostles, the entire series of relations contained in 
this book has a dependence. In his Gospel is shown by 
Luke how the prophetic Scriptures were fulfilled by Christ. 
In the Acts it was proposed to show how Christ's own predic- 
tions were fulfilled in His Church. The shame of the cross 
had been borne : that came from man. The glory of the 
resurrection had appeared : that came from God. To pro- 
claim the Lord's resurrection by infallible proofs, as 
witnesses, was henceforth to be the sole employment of the 
apostles, along with a declaration of His life and exposition 
of His doctrines. In accomplishing their new mission, a 
geographical order is directed to be observed ; and in 
that order flows the current of Luke's present narrative, 
comprising these sections : — 

1. The period wherein a testimony was delivered in Jeru- 
salem only (i. to vii.), terminating about A.D. 36. 

2. The period wherein the gospel was published in Samaria 
and the provinces, and was received by devout Gentiles in 
Csesarea (viii. to xi.), terminating A.D. 40. 

3. The period wherein the gospel was preached to idola- 
trous Gentiles, and Churches were raised in Syria and Pro- 
consular Asia (xi. to xvi.), terminating A.D. 41. 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 73 

4. The period of the planting the gospel, and its suc- 
cesses in Europe (xvi. to xx.), terminating A.D. 58. 

5. The period of Paul's last journey to Jerusalem, and 
his imprisonment at Csesarea (xx. to xxvi.), terminating 
A.D. 60. 

6. The period commencing with Paul's voyage to Italy, 
and terminating with his prison-life at Eome (xxvii., 
xxviii.), terminating A.D. 63. 

To the first of these periods consideration is confined in 
this chapter. 

The apostles were to receive divine power before they 
commenced their commission. And Luke preserves an 
account of the unexpected and amazing manner in which 
that power was conferred. He tells how it came by a sound 
of wind and an appearance of fire — the two most potent 
elements in nature. He explains, — " And they were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost ; " and he relates the effect 
thereof : " and began to speak with other tongues " — a 
miracle whereby they were fitted to commence their new 
ministry to the world without any other preparation. In 
like manner do all the miracles recorded throughout the 
book have reference to a preparation for, or a confirmation 
of, the testimonies delivered by the apostles concerning 
Jesus, and to their fulfilling His charge to witness for Him 
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts 
of the earth. 

" Power " was given to the apostles to fulfil their Lord's 
charge to witness for Him in Jerusalem, when " Peter stood 
forth with the eleven, and charged the men of Judea, and 
they that dwelt at Jerusalem, with the crucifixion of Christ; 
and declared, " This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we 
all are witnesses," &c. (ii. 32-36). 

That charge was courageously fulfilled when Peter and 
John, having wrought in the name of Jesus a miraculous 
cure on a lame man, Peter addressed the wondering spec- 



74 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

tators, and charged them, saying, " Ye denied the Holy 
One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted 
unto you ; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath 
raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses "(iii. 14, 15). 

It was fulfilled in the same manner when those same 
apostles, having been brought before the Sanhedrim, ad- 
dressing the council, said, " Ye rulers of the people and 
elders of Israel, be it known unto you, and to all the people 
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even 
by Him doth this man stand before you whole." And re- 
mission of sins in His name was preached when they 
added, " Neither is there salvation in any other " (iv. 
8-12). 

The Lord's charge was fulfilled in Jerusalem when an 
angel, having delivered those same apostles from prison, 
directed them, " Go stand and speak in the temple to the 
people all the words of this life ; " and having obeyed, they 
were again taken by officers before the council, and being 
charged by the high priest to speak no more to the people 
in the name of Jesus, they replied, " We ought to obey 
God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up 
Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree : and we are 
witnesses of these things : " and when they added, " Him 
hath God exalted with His right hand a Prince and a 
Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness 
of sins " (v. 29-32). And, in general terms, Luke declares, 
"With great power the apostles gave witness of the resur- 
rection of the Lord" (iv. 33). " And daily in the temple 
and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach 
Jesus " (v. 42.) Here the presence of Luke in Jerusalem, his 
adopted home, is apparent : gratification glistens on his page. 
The results of these first essays and successes of the apostles 
are described with numerical exactness. He notices that 
to the original number of disciples in Jerusalem there was 



FIRST PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 75 

presently added 3000 converts. Thereafter lie sets down 
an aggregate of 5000 believers ; and again, as if the pro- 
gressive increase baffled a ready reckoning, he writes " mul- 
titudes were added to the Church daily." 

And equally expressive of actual observation is Luke's 
account of the character and manners of this new com- 
munity. He does not give it in the form of a summary of 
received reports, but in sketches interwoven with his inci- 
dents. He represents, concerning those early converts, 
that — 

1. They -received the word with gladness (ii. 41). 

2. They were stedfast in their profession of the apostles' 
doctrine (ii. 42). 

3. They cherished an intimate fellowship (ii. 44). 

4. They exercised a fraternal charity (iv. 32). 

5. They were instant in prayer (ii. 42). 

6. They were adorned with simplicity, or singleness of 
heart (ii. 46). 

7. Their conduct commended them : " They were in 
favour with all the people " (ii. 47). 

In those sketches, depicted with divine conciseness, the 
student possesses a cluster of the fruits of the Spirit's grace 
which adorned the members of the normal Church. 

As the narrative proceeds, events are described from the 
Cyrenian's point of view. The foreigner and the proselyte 
are reflected throughout the historian's selection of intelli- 
gence. Other scenes are depicted, and other ministers 
besides the apostles appear. Mention is made of a circum- 
stance respecting Greek converts, in the words, "And in 
those days, when the number of the disciples was multi- 
plied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the 
Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily 
ministration" (vi. 1). A notice like this may appear unim- 
portant ; but its introduction is explained by the personal 
interest taken in the class by the writer. It is likewise 



76 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

agreeable to his principle of tracing things from their be- 
ginning. His associations had been with the Hellenists, in 
their synagogues ; and the complainants were converts from 
those communities. Moreover, the notice stands at the 
head of a series of particulars all eminently illustrating the 
main design of the narrative. It was connected with the 
appointment of deacons (literally ministers or servants) ; and 
this appointment was connected with the expansion of the 
Church beyond the limits of the strictly Hebrew element, 
to which eldership in the synagogues had hitherto been 
confined. Stephen, Philip, and Nicolas were Hellenists. 
A ministration to Greeks required a knowledge of their 
language. These deacons were students of the Septuagint 
version of the Bible. Furthermore, the naming of Stephen 
is the occasion for proceeding with the Greek aspect of 
events. The attention of Luke was naturally attracted to 
the Greek party opposed to the disciples. He relates, 
" Then there arose certain of the synagogue of the Libyans, 
the Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, 
disputing with Stephen" (vi. 9). It appears that the 
Greeks of the south united with those from the north in 
the discussion. This discussion would be occasioned by the 
numerous conversions which had occurred among the Greek 
communities, and of which conversions Stephen had been 
largely instrumental. For Luke writes, " And Stephen, full 
of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among 
the people " (vi. 8). Whether he now repaired to the 
Hellenistic synagogues, or the elders thereof sought him, 
does not transpire. But as Stephen had been elected a 
deacon on account of his Greek predilections, it is probable 
that the discussion took place in the synagogues of the 
latter. The foreign Jews, especially those of Alexandria 
and Cyrene, were notorious for their tumultuous habits, 
as general history tells. This whole relation concerning 
Stephen discovers Luke's own prepossessions. Stephen is 



FIFST PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 77 

the first minister after the apostles concerning whom he 
writes. Not less does this relation illustrate the historian's 
method of connecting incidents apparently remote. For 
the violent death of Stephen introduces another agent. It 
brings upon the scene a Jew who had been pursuing his 
studies in Jerusalem, under a famous doctor of canon law, 
and who, being a native of Tarsus, attended also the 
synagogue of the Cilicians, and had there listened with 
passionate interest to the discussions which had been con- 
ducted against the testimony of Stephen. Afterwards, he 
witnessed the accusation of the deacon before the San- 
hedrim. He heard his emphatic testimony, borne there in 
fulfilment of the Lord's charge. He followed the murderers 
with their victim without the gate. And here it is that 
mention is first made of this wonderful character, in these 
words: " And Saul was consenting unto his death " (viii. 1). 
The complicity of Saul in that deed was shown by his 
taking charge of the outer garments thrown at his feet by 
the witnesses whose evidence had been received against 
Stephen, and who therefore were bound to cast the first 
stones (Deut. xvii. 7). Such were the circumstances of 
Saul's first contact with Christianity. He now stood face 
to face with its first dying champion ; and he had now the 
opportunity to mark the correspondence that subsisted 
between the testimony he had heard from his lips and the 
behaviour of the saint thereafter. 

And finally, attesting the power of the apostles and 
deacons witnessing for Christ at this period, and the success 
that attended their ministry, Luke seems, in relating how 
the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, 
and how a great number of the priests were obedient to 
the faith, to exult as if sharing their triumphs. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
luke's relation with the acts of the apostles. 

The Second Period. 

The second section of Luke's second book may be said to 
commence at the eighth chapter, and to conclude at the 
eighteenth verse of the eleventh chapter. A recognition 
of the writer, amidst the scenes described, as a witness of 
some of them, and as receiving reports concerning the rest 
of them from the principal agents in them, imparts an 
interest to his narrative in the manner, though not the 
matter, of the Commentaries of classic writers of antiquity. 
Luke's method of writing being remembered, curiosity is 
sustained by observing how, as a historian for the Holy 
Ghost, his eye was directed throughout to the events as to 
a chain, each link of which is connected with the fulfilment 
of Christ's final charge. A prime example of this con- 
catenation stands in front of this section. Saul was seen, 
in the previous chapter, a consenting witness to the murder 
of a disciple of Jesus : he here appears again, and in the 
attitude of fierce hostility to Christ's followers. "As for 
Saul," Luke relates, " he made havoc of the Church." But 
it is just at this seemingly gloomy and critical moment that 
a new development arises, and our Lord's charge obtains a 
fulfilment in its second geographical particular. And here 
it should be noticed, that Luke only produces samples; 
accomplishing his purpose, as a historian, by a relation of 
one, and seldom of more than two, illustrations. As a 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE A CTS. 79 

consequence of the persecution to which Saul had committed 
himself with his party, Luke continues, " Therefore they 
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the 
Word. Then Philip went down to Samaria, and preached 
Christ unto them" (viii. 4, 5). This was the first occasion 
upon which a testimony for Christ was borne to others than 
to Jews and proselytes. This mission did not originate by 
the will of man, but was prompted by divine overruling. 
The result of this visit of Philip is characteristic. The 
Samaritans had shown their candour by admitting the 
Messiahship of Christ upon the occasion of His visit to 
Shechem. And so now " the people with one accord gave 
heed unto the things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing 
the miracles which he did " (viii. 6). " And there was 
great joy in that city" (ver. 8). Here, then, was accom- 
plished that word spoken by our Lord in this place, " One 
soweth and another reapeth," having by His own ministry 
there prepared this harvest. Luke proceeds, " Now when 
the apostles which were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria 
had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John " 
(ver. 14). And to complete the picture, it is afterwards 
added, ' ; And they, when they had testified and preached 
the gospel in many towns of the Samaritans, returned 
to Jerusalem" (ver. 25). Dr Alford well remarks, "It is 
very interesting to observe, that this same John, who 
requested that our Lord might permit fire to come from 
heaven upon certain Samaritans (Luke ix. 54), came down 
to Samaria with Peter to confer the gift of the Holy Spirit 
on the Samaritan believers." 

By the same overruling disposal that brought the gospel 
to Samaria, the testimony concerning Jesus was delivered 
to an African, journeying homeward from Jerusalem. 
Like Luke, this man had been a proselyte to the Jewish 
religion. This is to be inferred from his having been found 
reading a book of Holy Scripture. As an Ethiopian, he would 



80 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

have read the Alexandrian version.* He had doubtless 
heard, when in Jerusalem, concerning Christ, either from 
His enemies or His friends. His mind was occupied with 
the subject, and he was now reading the portion which 
especially was known to be prophetic of the Messiah. 
Philip was sent by divine monition to interpret the passage 
which he so intently read. The candour of the Ethiopian 
was equal to that of the Samaritans, as also was his joyful 
reception of the truth. For having, upon his confession of 
faith, been baptized, it is added concerning him, " And he 
went on his way rejoicing" (viii. 39). Luke came from 
Africa ; and the writer's own joy seems to breathe in these 
words. In another respect this anecdote is remarkable. 
Some of the bitterest enemies of the disciples and opposers 
of their mission also came from Africa. But Africa is made 
the first foreign country to which the gospel is conveyed. 

Keeping in mind the principle upon which the narrative 
is conducted, Philip is seen again as an agent fulfilling 
Christ's prophetic charge. From Azotus (Ashdod), passing 
through, he preached in all the towns till he came to 
Csesarea, where for the present his tour terminated; for 
here was his home. As the writer was personally acquainted 
with Philip (xxi. 8), these particulars would have been 
received from Philip's own lips, in accordance with Luke's 
professed method when he was not himself the eye-witness. 

And now again appears the name of Saul, which stands 
at the head of a train of events of singular interest. Saul 
is now found in pursuit of the fugitives, scattered by 
the violence of persecution. Breathing out threatenings 
against them, he bare letters from the high priest, directed 
to the elders of the synagogues at Damascus, that he 
might bring any of the disciples, men or women, bound to 

* The Ethiopic version of the Old Testament was not translated 
from the Hebrew, but from the Alexandrian Greek.— Ludolph' s Ethiopic 
Psalter, Pre/. 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 81 

Jerusalem" (ix. 1, 2). Those disciples were not mere 
terror-striken fugitives. They went everywhere preaching 
the Word. They were witnesses fulfilling the charge of 
Christ. They had His warrant. Their Lord had said con- 
cerning Himself to the same high priest, " Hereafter shall 
the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God " 
(Luke xxii. 69). And now a proof was to be given of the 
fulfilment of that word. Before Saul had reached the gate 
of the city, and when he thought the objects of his pursuit 
were just within his grasp, the persecutor is arrested. He 
is overcome by a light streaming from the throne of heaven. 
He hears a voice, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me 
(in these my members) 1 I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom 
thou persecutest." Power was in the words. Saul's heart 
and his purpose are instantly changed. He yields the 
promptest homage, saying, " Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do 1 " Saul consenting to the death of Stephen — Saul 
making havoc of the Church at Jerusalem — Saul breathing 
out threatenings against the disciples that fled before him 
— Saul prostrate before Jesus — this is the prophetic 
connexion. 

The triumph of the enthroned Jesus was as complete as 
it was instantaneous. The apprehensions of the disciples, 
occasioned by the approach of Saul's embassy, were allayed 
by a revelation made to Ananias, saying, " Arise and in- 
quire for Saul of Tarsus, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, 
to bear my name before the Gentiles" (ix. 10-16). With 
unhesitating faith Ananias went into the house to which 
he was directed, and addressing him, said, " Brother Saul, 
the Lord Jesus that appeared to thee in the way, hath sent 
me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with 
the Holy Ghost" (ver. 17). Thereupon Saul was admitted 
by baptism into the fellowship of the saints, whom before 
he had sought to imprison. And, conferring not with flesh 
and blood, he straightway preached Christ in the syna- 

F 



82 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

gogues ; and increasing more in strength as he proceeded, 
he confounded the Jews at Damascus, proving that this 
Jesus is the very Christ (ver. 22). Now the animosity of 
those to whom he should have delivered the letters from 
the high priest is turned upon himself. They conspire to 
kill him ; and, escaping their vengeance by the good 
offices of the disciples, he returned to Jerusalem. Here, 
when he essayed to join himself to the disciples, they were 
all afraid of him. A son of consolation, however, is at- 
tracted to him. Barnabas took him and brought him to 
the apostles, and declared the history of his miraculous 
conversion. It has been thought that Barnabas had been 
a fellow-student with Saul at the feet of Gamaliel. But 
this is quite improbable, Barnabas having been too much 
Saul's senior for such a coincidence. All that can be said 
is, that the youthful Saul had obtained some acquaintance 
with him in the sphere of literature, or through the acci- 
dent of the contiguity of their respective native homes. 
That they had been previously acquainted with each other is 
quite consistent with the confidence which Barnabas reposed 
in Saul's integrity. Soon did Saul justify this confidence 
in him by immediately repairing to the communities among 
whom he had acquired his former hostile feeling against 
the disciples. Their synagogues resounded with his testi- 
mony, as they had once with Stephen's. He spake boldly 
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the 
Hellenists (ver. 29). But having been divinely directed, 
while engaged in prayer in the temple, to get quickly out 
of Jerusalem (xxii. 17, 18), and his life having been again 
threatened, certain of the brethren brought him down to 
Csesarea (ver. 30). In this city the disciples were at pre- 
sent secure, under the influence of the police preserved by 
a large garrison of Roman soldiers. That Saul should 
have followed Stephen the deacon in bearing a testimony 
for Christ in the synagogues of the Grecians at Jerusalem, 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE A CTS. 83 

and then, having made proof of his ministry, that he should 
have followed Philip the deacon, Stephen's companion, to 
his residence at Csesarea, are coincidences worthy of obser- 
vation. Here, too, the mind reverts to the utterance of the 
Lord's prophetic charge, and beholds in Saul of Tarsus 
another link added to the agency whereby the great object 
proposed in that charge was to be fulfilled. How great was 
this trophy of Christ's power, selected from among His 
enemies, is intimated in the hush that succeeded the perse- 
cutions in which Saul had taken a conspicuous part, and 
those which were consequent upon his own conversion. 
For it is added, " Then had the Churches rest," &c. — that 
is, after Saul's retirement from the scene. 

The narrative is continued by some examples of Peter's 
ministry. " And it came to pass that as Peter passed 
through all quarters (of Judea) he came to Lydda." The 
persecution at Jerusalem had not suspended his labours ; 
they only changed their scene. As examples of his minis- 
try in the provinces, an occurrence at Lydda is related, and 
another at Joppa. They were both miraculous, and illus- 
trated at once the powers conferred upon the apostles, and 
the success that attended their ministry (ix. 35, 42). 
There is related the conversion of Cornelius with his house- 
hold, and their admission into the fellowship of the saints. 
And here, again, Luke's method of connecting his history 
with the text set at the head of it finds an illustration. 
Whilst Peter tarried at Joppa, a Koman officer at Csesarea 
was warned by a vision to send to invite the apostle of 
Christ to come and instruct him what he ought to do ; 
being, although a Gentile, a devout man, fearing God with 
all his house, and praying alway. The sequel conveys an 
impression of the difficulty to be overcome, which subsisted 
in the mind of the apostle, to the free admission of a devout 
Gentile to fellowship, without the intermediate rite of pro- 
selytism to the Jewish economy. Christ came to pull 



84 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L VKE. 

down the middle wall of partition ; and He had often inti- 
mated in the course of His ministry, and in words ad- 
dressed to themselves, that the gospel was designed for 
"all the world." Left to man, the divine design would 
never have been accomplished. 

As the messengers from Cornelius drew near to Joppa, 
a divine monition was given also to Peter, whereby he was 
apprised of their errand, and instructed in his duty with 
reference to it. Having travelled thither, they stayed with 
him during the night, and he departed in their company on 
the morrow. Their discourse may be imagined : Peter's 
concerning Cornelius ; and the messengers', who were Jews, 
holding Cornelius in great esteem, concerning the novel 
doctrine of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Arrived at 
the house, the earnest curiosity of Cornelius was shown in 
his going to meet Peter at the gate, and his reverence for 
him in the manner in which he welcomed him (x. 25, 26). 
Explanations followed; Peter rehearsed how his scruples 
had been overcome ; and Cornelius, for himself and on be- 
half of his company, declared, " Now therefore are we all 
here present before God, to hear all things that are com- 
manded thee of God " (x. 33). And now the first public 
witness for Christ to the Jews becomes likewise the first to 
the Gentiles. The testimony is identical, excepting, of 
course, in what related to the distinct circumstances of the 
two parties. On the memorable occasion of his first wit- 
ness-bearing, Peter had said to the Jews, " Jesus of Nazar- 
eth, a man approved of God among you " &c. (ii. 22). To 
the Gentiles he now explains, " How God anointed Jesus 
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who 
went about doing good," &c. (x. 38). To the Jews he had 
said, " Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have 
crucified Him" (ii. 23). To the Gentiles, "Whom they 
slew and hanged on a tree " (x. 39). To the Jews he said, 
" This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are wit- 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 85 

nesses" (ii. 32). To the Gentiles, "Not to all the people, 
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who 
did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead " 
(x. 41). To the Jews Peter had testified, " Repent, and be 
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for 
the remission of sins " (ii. 38). And now to the Gentiles 
he says, in answer to what Cornelius had expressed con- 
cerning their anxious attitude, " And He commanded us to 
preach and to testify that which all the prophets witness, 
that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall re- 
ceive remission of sins " (x. 42, 43). 

A seal was set to this testimony, for, " while Peter yet 
spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the 
word. And they of the circumcision who came with Peter 
were astonished that on the Gentiles also was poured out 
the gift of the Holy Ghost." Hereupon Peter was compelled 
to challenge his Jewish companions, sa} T ing, " Can any man 
forbid that these should be baptized?" (x. 44-47). 

This instance of Peter's fulfilment of his Masters charge 
possessed a marvellous interest for the Cyrenian. The 
baptism of Cornelius and his company is an event which 
furnishes an opportunity to test the relative position of 
Luke. He has given the history thereof with vivid exactness, 
and at a length which bespeaks his sense of its importance. 
Beginning at the last verse of the ninth chapter, the account 
of it occupies the whole of the tenth chapter, which consists 
of forty-eight verses. No writer, being a Jew, it may be 
supposed, would have devoted such a share of attention to 
the subject, except with a view to controvert the propriety of 
Peter's conduct, unless he had been, like Paul, a divinely- 
appointed apostle to the uncircumcision. 

But this is not all. There follows thereafter an account, 
equally graphic, of a council of the apostles and brethren 
with reference to this innovation, held upon Peter's return 
to Jerusalem. " They of the circumcision," proceeds the 



86 BIOGRAPHY OF ST LUKE. 

historian, " contended with him." Exciusiveness is a foible 
of humanity. Like many in every age, the objectors 
thought that the benefits of the gospel were to be confined 
to their own party. Those simple men had no thought of 
subjugating the heathen to the sceptre of Christ. Such an 
interpretation of His last charge to them belonged to that 
class of announcements concerning which it was said, 
"They understood none of those things." Accordingly, 
their prejudice embodied itself in the form of an accusation 
of Peter. Peter's defence consisted in a rehearsal of the 
matter from the beginning, accompanied by an exposition 
of all its circumstances. His witnesses were produced, 
being the brethren who had accompanied him to Csesarea. 
Moreover, he appealed to the promise of Christ, and to the 
fact of its fulfilment by the gift of the Holy Ghost to the 
Gentile converts, as well as to themselves. And he con- 
cluded by the modest appeal, " What was I that I could 
withstand God ?" (xi. 17). The candour of the objectors 
was worthy of their profession as the disciples of Christ. 
" When they heard these things, they held their peace, and 
glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles 
granted repentance unto life." 

As Luke was now in Jerusalem, his information concern- 
ing this other step in the direction which the gospel was 
destined to take had been easily derivable from Peter, or 
from one of those in company with him. This important 
circumstance concludes the second section of the Acts of 
the Apostles. 

It already appears that the book is not to be regarded as 
describing the acts of the apostles in general, but quite in a 
limited sense. It does not give a full account of the min- 
istry of any of the apostles, but only such facts as suffice to 
afford evidence of the fulfilment of Christ's final charge to 
them in its essential particulars. All the apostles, in their 
several spheres, accomplished their share of the great work 



SECOND PERIOD OF THE ACTS. 87 

assigned to them. But Luke had no opportunity to follow 
them all, or to obtain information concerning their pro- 
gresses from eye-witnesses. Besides, the twelve apostles 
were ministers of the circumcision ; whilst his own sym- 
pathies were with the dawning expansiveness of the Gospel. 
The fulfilment of Christ's charge, agreeing with the order in 
which it was expressed, was gradual. And most skilfully 
has the historian chosen his materials for an elucidation of 
ts progressive fulfilment. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LUKE ONE OF THE FIRST PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL TO 
THE HEATHEN. 

Persecution had caused the dispersion of Christ's wit- 
nesses throughout Judea and Samaria. A similar cause 
afterwards led. to the departure from Jerusalem of others 
to places beyond Palestine. And by this last exodus of 
disciples was occasioned the first step taken towards an 
accomplishment of Christ's prophetic charge in its last 
geographical particular. The account of this event forms 
an introduction to the THIRD section of the Acts of the 
Apostles, and is related in the eleventh chapter, from the 
nineteenth verse to the twenty-first. Here Luke says, 
" Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecu- 
tion that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice, 
and Cyprus, and Antioch/' The word translated upon 
rather signifies "after the death of Stephen" (Valpy's 
Greek Testament) ; so that some time had elapsed before 
the persecutors turned upon the foreign proselytes. It is 
added, "Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, 
who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the 
Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus " (xi. 20). The men 
of Cyprus journeyed homeward. But for the mention of 
those of Cyrene, some other reason must be sought than 
what explains the route of the former. It might have been 
that, being indisposed to go so far away from Jerusalem 
as to Africa, they chose Antioch, as being, like Cyrene, a 
free Roman city. That Luke was one of those men of 
Cyrene is concluded upon the evidence — (1.) that his name, 



LUKE A PREACHER TO THE HEATHEN. 89 

coupled with his country, appears in the immediate sequel 
(xiii. 1) i and (2.) that from this point to the end of the 
fifteenth chapter, the current of his narrative has Antioch 
for its centre. Consistent with this evidence is the opinion 
of Dr Whitby, who, in a note beneath the verse xi. 20, 
says, " Luke of Cyrene was one of them that came down to 
Antioch." The date of that exodus is reckoned by some 
chronologists to have been a.d. 41. Luke had therefore 
resided at Jerusalem seven or eight years. 

This company of witnesses was dismissed as well by the 
same overruling hand as from the same secondary cause 
that sent forth the companies of witness-bearers through- 
out Palestine. Some of them had relations with one place, 
and some with another. It is said, " They went preaching 
the Word " — that is, as directed in Christ's charge. They 
were all of them preachers. The commission was not to 
be limited to the apostles, nor yet to them and the seventy 
evangelists. God usually begins to work at a point unex- 
pected by man. Our Lord had said, " They shall lay their 
hands on you and persecute you." But he added, "And it 
shall turn to you for a testimony " (Luke xxi. 12, 13). And 
history confirms the word. In England, for instance, the 
Philippo-Marian persecution raised an inextinguishable 
beacon, deterring the faithful from apostasy ; and now the 
faithful of Britain have the honour to be Christ's chiefest 
witness-bearers to the world. 

Notwithstanding the intense brevity of Luke's narrative 
at this point, the conduct of his company is distinctly de- 
scribed. Their exodus illustrated that word, " I will lead 
them in paths they have not known." They preached, it is 
said, to none but Jews only. They carried with them the 
prejudices of Judea. As yet, neither Jew nor proselyte, 
being disciples of Christ, comprehended the freedom with 
which the Gentiles were to be received into fellowship. 
To the Jews belonged the oracles of God, having been the 



90 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

recipients and guardians of them ; and to the people thus 
distinguished it was thought salvation was confined. Hence 
the devout Gentiles, who read the Holy Scriptures in the 
Greek version, had always joined themselves as proselytes 
to the Jewish community. And hence, by both Jew and 
proselyte, no other idea was entertained but that an ac- 
ceptance of Jesus, as the Messiah of the Old Testament 
prophecies, required the same initiation. Under this mis- 
conception of the design of Christ, the proclamation of the 
gospel had hitherto been limited to Jews and proselytes. 
The three thousand converts on the day of Pentecost in- 
cluded no others ; and perhaps Cornelius and his company 
had hitherto been the sole examples of an admission other- 
wise than through the conventional gate. It was by this 
company, and at Antioch, that this spell was destined to be 
broken. 

And now follows the sentence upon which turns almost the 
entire future interest of the book: " Who, when they came 
to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians concerning the 
Lord Jesus." "Here," remarks Valpy, "we seem to 
have the first account of preaching the gospel to idolatrous 
Gentiles, for there is nothing in the word 'EXX^/tjrag (Greeks) 
to limit it to such as were worshippers of the true God " 
(Gr. Test.) Luke's design was to describe progress. Already 
the gospel had been preached to Hellenists, both Jews and 
proselytes, in the synagogues at Jerusalem and elsewhere. 
Also, in the several towns through which this company had 
come, the preaching had been confined to the synagogues 
by those that were Jews, and perhaps to some assemblies 
of proselytes, by those that were proselytes. But at Antioch 
the curiosity of others than these was awakened by what 
had been brought to their ears concerning Jesus Christ by 
the newly-arrived travellers. And nothing could be more 
natural than that those disciples who were Greeks should 
now, among Greeks, freely speak of those things of which 



LUKE A PREACHER TO TEE HEATHEN. 91 

their heads and hearts were full. They had left the land 
of miracles. But adding to their recital a declaration of 
the risen Saviour's charge, that " repentance and remission 
of sins should be preached in His name among all nations," 
their words were persuasive : " The hand of the Lord was 
with them." A benign influence was shed, disposing the 
hearers to a grateful acceptance of the message. Mis- 
apprehension concerning the design and extent of that 
message was at once banished by the happy result ; for it 
is added, " And a great number believed, and turned unto 
the Lord" (xi. 21). That a result so great was unantici- 
pated, is manifest. It was the first time that the message 
of Christ had been related, and the mercy of it preached, 
to idolatrous Gentiles. The case of Cornelius was different 
from this ; for although a Gentile, he was not an idolator. 
This result set a divine seal upon the proceeding; and 
therein that word of Christ received an illustration, " And 
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them also I 
must bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall 
be one fold and one shepherd" (John x. 16). And now 
was illustrated the testimony of Peter, being the last words 
which Luke added to his notes written in Jerusalem, " Then 
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life " 
(xi. 18). How gratifying must the thought ever have been 
to Luke, that to him appertained the honour of having been 
one of the very first witnesses for Christ to the heathen ! 

Tidings of this display of divine grace beyond Palestine, 
and towards heathen, were received by the Church at Jeru- 
salem in another temper than upon the occasion of the con- 
version of Cornelius. A deputy was despatched, and one 
that betokened the considerate feeling that now prevailed: 
" They sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as 
Antioch " (xi. 22). Than Barnabas, none could have been 
more suitable for this delicate mission. He was named " a 
son of consolation." He had given his property for the 



92 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

solace of brethren impoverished by persecution. And 
having been a native of Cyprus, his sympathies were not 
likely to be so contracted as if he had been a Jew of Pales- 
tine ; but he would be more free to embrace the new class 
of ingathered disciples. The repetition of the phrase, " as 
far as Antioch," seems not only to indicate distance, but 
also to express what, in Anglican terms, would be called 
the extra-parochial character of the movement. 

The sight that Barnabas came to witness was one which 
heaven itself had in suspense awaited. The case of the Gen- 
tiles was intimately and necessarily connected with our Lord's 
ministry. His charge to preach the gospel of the remission 
of sins in His name to all nations, and to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, constituted His invitation to every 
person indiscriminately to partake with all believers the 
promised grace of the new covenant. Like all prophetic 
events before their fulfilment, the promise had appeared 
dim and shadowy to the most discerning student. But 
now the light had shone, the fact was realised. " A great 
number had believed, and turned unto the Lord." The 
link of proselytism was broken. Believers had stepped 
directly from the ranks of the idolaters into fellowship 
with the saints. And like as Simeon welcomed the infant 
Jesus, so, with respect to this infant Church, " Barnabas, 
when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad." 
And — divine charity ! — the simple term of communion 
proposed to the new converts by this " good man " was, an 
unswerving fidelity to Him unto whom they had turned : 
" He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they 
would cleave unto the Lord " (ver. 23). 



CHAPTER X. 

LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ANTIOCH. 

In travelling as far as Antioch, Luke and his company had 
consulted their convenience. They repaired to a place re- 
mote from the influences that fanned the persecution from 
which they sought to escape. But the hand of the Lord, 
which was with them, conducted them hither for a higher 
purpose than their mere security. They had witnessed 
many of the interesting scenes connected with the fulfilment 
of Christ's charge in Judea. And little as they expected it, 
they had come to a place where they would behold a still 
wider accomplishment of its great purpose. 

Antioch was distant 260 miles from Jerusalem. It was 
built partly on the lowest slope of a mountain, and partly 
in the valley through which flows the Orontes, the chief 
river of Syria, and which runs its course to the sea at a 
distance of nearly twenty miles. The city was overlooked 
by mountains • one of which, Mount Casius, is so high that 
the rising sun may be seen from its summit when the bottom 
of it is still in darkness. Strabo, who wrote shortly before 
Luke went thither, describes Antioch as consisting of four 
distinct quarters, each having a waJl of its own, and the 
whole surrounded with a common wall. The several walls 
marked the successive additions which had been made to 
the city. 

Antioch was eminently adapted for commencing the de- 
sign contemplated in the last particular of Christ's charge. 
Next to Rome and Alexandria, it was the principal Oriental 



94 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

city of the empire. With Africa on one side of it, and 
Europe on the other, it was more central than either of 
those cities, whilst its population was of a more cosmo- 
politan character. Libanius, the sophist, who was a native 
of Antioch, describing the city, says, " Sitting in its market- 
place you see before you the inhabitants and manners of all 
the cities of the world." And he adds, "Within and with- 
out it every art and device are employed to make life desir- 
able." The words " without it " include an extensive park, 
five miles distant from the city, in which, amidst a grove of 
laurels and cypresses, was a temple raised by Antiochus 
Epiphanes, wherein was enshrined a splendid idol of 
Daphne. The games and pleasures here pursued were of a 
character so extravagant that the phrase " Daphnic man- 
ners" became a proverb. By the Latins, the city itself was 
often called "Antiochia apud Daphnem." 

By the events which followed the arrival of Luke and his 
company, Antioch came to possess a renown next to 
Jerusalem in the early annals of Christianity. In Antioch 
was laid the first foundation of the Gentile Church. Here 
Chrysostom was born, and here he delivered his " Homilies 
on the Acts of the Apostles." Antioch was the theatre of 
several ecclesiastical councils. A list of its early bishops is 
given by Eusebius. The Crusaders took the city from the 
Turks in 1098, by whom it was erected into a Christian 
principality. Resumed by the Turks in 1269, it rapidly 
decayed. And now, of this once opulent and luxurious 
mistress of Syria, it is impossible to form an idea, such as 
is attainable of some other obsolete cities by their architec- 
tural remains. 

At Antioch, Luke was in a new element. The men of 
Cyrene were not regarded in this city as strangers and 
foreigners, as they had been at Jerusalem. They stood in 
the relation of fellow-citizens to the Antiochians, who, 
like the Cyrenians, possessed the privilege of the Roman 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ANT IOC II. 95 

freedom. The fact that the historian was himself one of 
those men of Cyrene is verified from his having, fortunately 
for his biography, inserted his name and country in the 
narrative just in relation to this time and place. As the 
future historian of the Church, it was advantageous for his 
purpose that Luke was set in a position to observe the 
planting of the gospel at this important station. For, 
whereas in Jerusalem, not being a Jew, he had no part or lot 
in the ministry; there having been no such bar here, he is now 
found classed with prophets and teachers. In that situa- 
tion no other testimony could have been received with more 
respect than Luke's by the Antiochians. The fact that he 
was not a Jew gave weight to his representations. He had 
no hereditary prepossessions like those prevalent in the 
minds of Jews. He had made himself acquainted with 
the whole history to which the faith of inquirers was in- 
vited. He had attended for the space of seven years upon 
the teaching of the apostles. He had received, with them, 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. He was familiar with their 
ways in Christ. And ever since his conversion he had been 
in active sympathy with the divine purpose to bless the 
world by the gospel of Jesus. In the deliberations, there- 
fore, concerning the exigencies which the rapid gathering 
of a Church, under circumstances so novel, would occasion, 
Luke's long experience, and his habits of observation, ren- 
dered his counsels invaluable. 

Again, Luke's method of a historical combination, as of 
links in a chain, receives an illustration. Of those that 
sold their lands to provide for the poor saints at the first 
ingathering of the Church, Luke specified only the name of 
Barnabas. Upon Saul's return to Jerusalem, and when 
the disciples, incredulous concerning his conversion, shunned 
him, Luke represents Barnabas as having brought him into 
their company, and, by a narrative of the circumstances of 
his conversion, inspired them with confidence towards him. 



96 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

And now Barnabas, with whom by these anecdotes the 
reader has been made acquainted, visits the Church at 
Antioch. When God works, all hindrances vanish. Not 
only can He raise up of stones children unto Abraham, but, 
having raised them, He can dispose the children of Abraham 
to regard this new progeny as brethren. Barnabas, the 
Levite, was so disposed. When he came and had seen the 
illustration of the grace of God in the converts here, " he 
was glad ; for (or because)," adds Luke, " he was a good 
man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." When this 
expression of his friend's admiration is sanctioned by the 
Inspirer of Holy Scripture, these characteristics must have 
been bright indeed. Barnabas was a man of great benevo- 
lence. He exulted in leaping over the wall of separation, 
to behold the enriching of the world with an affluence of 
grace. He was fitted for a ministry, in this new field, by a 
large endowment of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. 
Perceiving the design of Christ with respect to these sheep 
of another fold, he rejoiced to gather them. His character 
harmonised with the interesting business of the embassy 
with which he had been entrusted. And how Luke shared 
the happy feeling of his friend is seen in the words with 
which he records the result of Barnabas's conciliating 
ministry. "Much people," he says, "was added to the 
Lord" (xi. 24). This result of preaching the remission of 
sins through faith in Christ crucified seems more illustrious 
here than even in Judea ; for there the people had been 
prepared by a previous revelation through the prophets; 
but here the result rested simply on a reception of the 
testimony for Jesus borne by His disciples, the divine 
influence being present with teacher and convert, compen- 
sating the want of any preliminary indoctrination. 

By Luke's method of composing his narrative it is shown 
how God had already prepared another, and a special, agent 
for this new field of evangelical harvesting. Already the 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ANTIOCH. 97 

reader is acquainted with him. It has been seen how it 
was said concerning Saul by Jesus Christ, " He is a chosen 
vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles." And 
it will now be seen how at Antioch these words received 
their primary verification. An accession of agency had 
brought new success. The success gave occasion for more 
labourers. Barnabas had laboured at Antioch about a year. 
His faith prompted an appliance of redoubled power. He 
desired help in this new field of enterprise. The relation 
concerning Saul which he had made to the disciples at 
Antioch, and the fact of his designation to the ministry of 
the Gentiles, came to his mind. He resolved to acquaint 
him with the exigence, and to invite him to share his 
labours. For this purpose he must travel to Tarsus. 
Tarsus was the chief city of the adjoining province of 
Cilicia. It stood near to the Cilician coast, as did Antioch 
the Syrian, whilst both looked towards the island of 
Cyprus, which stood in the bay that washed both those 
shores ; the three places having a triangular relation to each 
other, and the neighbourhood of the three becoming the 
theatre of the first dawning of the gospel upon the Gentile 
world. The situation of Saul during the interval of his re- 
tirement from Jerusalem to Tarsus, and his going from 
thence to Antioch, has always presented a difficulty to his 
biographers. 

But it is submitted whether a key to it is not found in 
a word. In the English version the narrative proceeds, 
" Then departed Barnabas for to seek Saul " (xi. 25). But 
this version represents only half the truth. The word in 
the original text, anazetesai, does not signify simply to seek, 
but is a compound, having a prefix of intensification, and 
which, rendered literally, is to seek back; signifying, of 
course, to seek diligently, or to seek a restoration (of the 
object in question). The same word had been used by the 
Evangelist to express the anxious search of Mary for her 



98 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

missing son (Luke ii. 44). And, certainly, did he not 
intend to convey the same meaning, he had not employed it 
here. What, then, is this word intended to reveal? It 
intimates, at least, that Saul was in obscurity. But how is 
this intimation corroborated 1 The only notice that occurs 
concerning him during this interim is a notification made 
by himself in his Epistle to the Galatians of an excursion 
made into Arabia (Gal. i. 17). Whether that excursion 
was made in this interim signifies little here. It is sufficient 
that no fruits of that journey anywhere appear. So this 
notice only adds mystery to the difficulty sought to be 
solved. It remains, then, to revert to the account of his 
coming to Tarsus from Jerusalem, related in the ninth 
chapter of the Acts. There it appears that his preaching, 
when he arrived in Jerusalem from Damascus, had had the 
effect of increasing the persecution that raged against the 
Church; and as a precautionary means, both for Saul's 
safety, whose life was sought by the Jews, and also for the 
sake of the Church, the brethren removed him from the 
seat of danger. And it is recorded, as an immediate con- 
sequence of his absence, " Then had the Churches rest in all 
Judea and Galilee " (ix. 31). 

Passing from the ninth to the twenty-second chapter of 
the Acts, there is there found an allusion made, several 
years afterwards, by Saul himself to his situation at this 
period. It is found in his speech addressed from the steps 
of the Castle Antonia to a mob of infuriate Jews, that, in a 
trance in the temple, Jesus had warned him, " Make haste, 
and get speedily out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive 
thy testimony concerning me ; depart, for I will send thee 
far hence unto the Gentiles" (xxii. 17-21). Much, there- 
fore, as Saul might have wished to preach Christ where he 
had formerly blasphemed Him, Jerusalem was not to be the 
scene of his ministry. His mission was to preach to the 
far-off Gentiles. 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ANTIOCH. 99 

But reverting to the chain of events, the terms in which 
his dismissal from Jerusalem is expressed should be noticed. 
First, it is said, " They brought him down to Caesarea," being 
a safer place for him than Jerusalem. Peter afterwards 
retired to the same city, to avoid apprehension again, after 
his deliverance by an angel from prison. 

But it is not written concerning Peter that he was 
" brought down," but that " he departed, and went to another 
place" (xii. 17). And, secondly, as though Saul's removal 
to Csesarea was not security enough, " they sent him forth to 
Tarsus " — that is, by a ship (ix. 30). 

From these premises, the inference derivable is, that 
Saul's situation at Tarsus was one of almost constrained re- 
tirement. It was from this condition that Barnabas was 
divinely directed to release him. And with this inference 
agrees the language in which the anecdote is related. It 
says, " And when he had found him, he brought him to 
Antioch." But for the clearer perception of the argument, 
the expressions employed to describe both his dismissal and 
his restoration should be read in conjunction. 

The first combination — Saul's dismissal ; " They brought 
him down to Csesarea " (ix. 30). Saul's restoration : " And 
when he (Barnabas) had found him, he brought him to 
Antioch" (xi. 26). 

The second combination — Said's dismissal : " They sent 
him forth to Tarsus " (ix. 30). Said's restoration ; " Then 
departed Barnabas to Tarsus, to seek back Saul " (xi. 25). 

So Saul's appointed place of labour was neither Jerusa- 
lem nor Tarsus, but Antioch of the Gentiles, and thereafter 
the world. And then there is to be noticed the beautiful 
consistency of this argument with the prophetic chain of 
Luke's narrative. Here is beheld that " good man, and 
full of the Holy Ghost," who, in his love and faith, had, as 
an angel of peace, first introduced Saul to the Church at 
Jerusalem, becoming now, in like manner, the medium of 



100 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the introduction of this " chosen vessel " to his proper 
sphere ; both the one and the other being unconscious with 
what punctuality they were accomplishing the divine pur- 
pose — the one by the invitation to repair to Antioch, and 
the other by the acceptance of that invitation. 

As a witness of the scene, Luke furnishes a glance of the 
freeness with which Saul followed the example of Barnabas 
in joining the assemblies of Gentiles, and also of the unani- 
mity of feeling which marked their conduct. "And it 
came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves 
with the Church" (ver. 26). It is worthy of observation, 
that they are said to have " assembled themselves with the 
Church " — not the Church with them. It is to be observed, 
too, that this is the first time that the term " Church " is 
applied to an assembly of Gentiles. In coming, therefore, 
to Antioch, Saul was introduced to the first divinely- 
acknowledged Church, composed of persons brought imme- 
diately out of the darkness of heathenism, and who, as 
converts, were exempt from the burdens of the ritual of 
that economy which was fast waning away. Heretofore 
his ministry had been confined to synagogues. Here he 
became conjoined with a new class of persons, with those 
of a different culture, and of other habits than the class 
with which he had hitherto associated. It is most pro- 
bable, also, that it was now that he first became personally 
acquainted with Luke himself. 

Luke takes care to show how the faith of Barnabas was 
justified by the result. "They taught much people." By 
the combined ministry of these remarkable men, public 
attention was sustained. The number of inquirers in- 
crease. Salvation from the doubts and dread that hung 
upon the heathen mind in all things relating to re- 
ligion was a new theme for thought ; and the tidings 
preached by these, of the remission of sins and ever- 
lasting life through faith in Christ's name, were doc- 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ANT10CH. 101 

trines welcomed by multitudes of the weary and heavy- 
laden. 

As an evidence of the interest which the fact of the 
multitude that adopted these new doctrines had excited, 
Luke relates, " The disciples were called Christians first in 
Antioch." The mention of this circumstance would be in- 
duced by the fact that Luke was himself a member of the 
community to which the name was thus originally applied. 
Upon this notice Dr Lightfoot remarks, " As Csesarea, the 
seat of the Eoman governor of Judea, first saw the door of 
faith opened to Gentiles, so Antioch, the seat of the Eoman 
governor of Syria, first hears the name of Christian." This 
name was not given to the disciples of Christ by way of 
reproach, as some writers have thought. It had been 
more clearly observed here than in any other place that 
the disciples were not Jews, nor yet proselytes to Judaism, 
neither was their place of assembly a synagogue. And 
their doctrines being, equally with the Jewish religion, 
opposed to idolatry, and unlike those of any other sect 
known in Antioch, it was consequently an alternative, both 
of reason and convenience, that they should obtain the 
name which definitely indicated their discipleship. But 
behind the reasons inducing their new denomination, there 
was an occult cause of this nomenclature. An ancient pro- 
phecy had said, "For the Lord God shall call His servants 
by another name. For behold I create a new heaven and 
a new earth : and the former shall not be remembered, nor 
come into mind" (Isa. lxv. 15, 17). 

By the relation of an anecdote, Luke shows how the first 
act of the Christians of Antioch, in their collective capacity, 
illustrated the appropriateness of this denomination of them, 
and how truly they had partaken of the instinct of the House- 
hold of Faith. Informed by a prophetic utterance that 
there would happen a general dearth, and knowing that 
the disciples in Judea were already reduced to straits by 



102 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

persecution, and considering how their troubles would be 
aggravated by famine, these Christians promptly raised a 
contribution to alleviate the exigence of their Jewish 
brethren. And, as a further proof of their sympathy, they 
" sent it to the elders, by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." 
Happy brotherhood, and happy messengers, bearing such 
welcome fruits of a ministry to Gentiles ! 



CHAPTER XL 

A PARENTHESIS. 

In passing from the eleventh to the twelfth chapter of the 
"Acts," the reader will perceive that he enters upon a 
section which, excepting by the conjunction " Now about 
that time," has no connexion with the current narrative. As 
this is the only instance, since Luke's residence at Antioch, 
that he relates anything besides what concerns the Church 
there, or the agents proceeding from thence, as from a 
centre of Christian enterprise, this apparent deviation from 
his plan attracts curiosity. For this deviation, the import- 
ance and instructiveness of the particulars may have been 
an inducement. But besides this, his plan required that 
the intelligence conveyed by his pen should have been 
either observed by himself or communicated to him by a 
witness. The events related in this the twelfth chapter, 
had occurred before Barnabas and Saul went to Jerusalem 
with alms from the Church at Antioch, and were uncon- 
nected with their mission. And although, upon their 
return, they might have delivered the intelligence to him, 
as they received it from others when there, they could not 
have stood in the place of witnesses. 

That Luke nevertheless did write this section from infor- 
mation conveyed by the lips of a witness, or one so closely 
allied to the eye-witnesses as to warrant his acceptance of it, 
appears in the sequel. In the verse wherein the return of 
Barnabas and Saul to Antioch is announced, it says, " And 
took with them John, whose surname was Mark." Mark 



104 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

had hitherto resided in Jerusalem j and as he was a disciple 
of Christ, and intimately related to other disciples there, he 
had been in a favourable situation for observation. Luke 
would have been acquainted with him during his recent 
residence in Jerusalem. Obviously the passages of this 
section were selected from intelligence now brought by 
Mark. The consideration that the matter of this chapter 
was contributed by Mark, whilst the composition was 
Luke's, lends to it a special interest. The particulars thus 
afforded are these : — 

1. Herod Agrippols persecution of the Church of Christ in 
Jerusalem : " He stretched forth his hand " (exercised his 
power) "to vex certain of the Church." The notice of 
this man contained in this chapter is all that occurs 
concerning him in the New Testament. He was a grand- 
son of Herod the Great, and the son of Aristobalus, who 
was killed by that tyrant. The history and character of 
Herod Agrippa are supplied by Josephus in his Antiquities 
(xix.) 

2. The martyrdom of James. The conciseness of this notice 
is characteristic. No books are so full, yet so brief, as the 
Holy Scriptures. This needful brevity leaves the student the 
profitable employment of seeking, by combinations of illus- 
trative passages, to obtain an enlarged view of the subject 
under notice. With what success this may be done is 
shown in Dr Paley's " Horse Paulina." This James is 
called "the elder." He was brother of John, with whom 
he had witnessed the miraculous draught of fishes in the 
Lake of Gennesaret, and thereafter was called by Christ to 
be a fisher of men. He had been distinguished by having 
had a separate manifestation afforded to him of Jesus 
Christ after His resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 7). This James, 
with his brother, aspired to " sit at the right hand of Christ 
in His kingdom ;" and in response to the Lord's observation 
thereupon, declared that " he was able to drink of the cup 



A PARENTHESIS. 105 

that Christ should drink." He had since seen how " Christ 
suffered, leaving an example that he should follow His 
steps" (1 Peter ii. 21). And now was fulfilled that word 
spoken to him by our Lord, " Ye shall indeed drink of the 
cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am bap- 
tized with shall ye be baptized" (Mark x. 39). James 
became the second of Christ's disciples that attained a 
martyr's crown. And whereas Stephen, when suffering, 
" saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God," James had 
been beforehand fortified for his conflict by having, along 
with his brother and Peter, beheld His glory when they 
were with Him on the holy mount. The notice that James 
" was killed with the sword," consists with the kingly power 
under which he suffered. He was not crucified, as was his 
Master, under the proconsular rule ; nor stoned to death, 
as was Stephen, under the judgment of the Sanhedrim, and 
by the hands of a lawless multitude. 

3. The disposition of the Jews towards the disciples of Christ. 
The murder of James " pleased the Jews." Their malignity 
towards the disciples of Jesus was unabated ; and in Herod 
Agrippa they found a power to afflict them which they 
themselves did not possess. James and his brother had 
been surnamed Boanerges. Like John and Peter, he had 
with great energy borne witness for his crucified Lord. 
This is inferred from his having been the foremost arrested. 
The " certain " upon whom " hands were laid," were, of 
course, the more intrepid of the disciples. By the death 
of James, another prophet was added to the number of 
those that had been slain in Jerusalem. It is hereby seen, 
that the measure of the iniquity of its inhabitants was 
being filled up, as the foretold doom of the mystical Sodom 
approached. 

4. Peter's imprisonment. The king " proceeded further to 
take Peter also." The brevity of the notice of James's 
death is an indication that Mark had not beheld the scene, 



106 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

but had only, with the mourners, lamented it. And 
whereas that event is told in one sentence, the report 
relating Peter's imprisonment occupies the chief part of the 
chapter. And here, by conciseness of style, combined with 
minuteness of detail, is produced a picture of exquisite 
interest. Mark was familiarly acquainted with Peter, by 
whom he was called his son (1 Peter v. 13). What, therefore, 
looking at all the circumstances, can be more reasonable 
than to conclude that Mark received the particulars from 
the apostle's own lips, that it was Peter himself who had 
related in his hearing how he was arrested — how he had 
been chained to two soldiers — how he had nevertheless 
slept — and also how many soldiers were apppointed to 
guard him, together with their several stations in the 
prison. Having been twice imprisoned before, and twice 
delivered, Peter's tranquillity, in this sad situation, arose 
from an experimental persuasion of his Master's sympathy 
with His faithful servant. Upon a former occasion, he 
had " rejoiced that he was counted worthy to suffer for the 
name of Christ " (Acts v. 41). And having shared both the 
sufferings and the consolations of Christ, he would after- 
wards say to believers, "If ye be persecuted for the name 
of Christ, happy are ye ; rejoice, inasmuch as ye are par- 
takers of His sufferings" (1 Peter iv. 14). 

5. The conduct of the Church in the crisis: "Prayer was 
made without ceasing " (that is, several days and nights) 
" unto God for him." Mark himself was among those 
earnest supplicants. 

6. A miraculous deliverance. Uniformly doth the New 
Testament, or covenant, follow the Old Testament as a 
providential history; and equally, under both, had the 
prophets a miraculous sanction. The hostile Jews had 
thought that, by the favour of Herod Agrippa, their victim 
was at length secure. In consideration of the sanctity of the 

eason, Peter was kept in prison until the expiration of the 



A PARENTHESIS. 107 

seven days of unleavened bread succeeding the Passover, 
when the king intended to bring him forth to the people. 
The evening of the last of those days had arrived * and, 
according to the expectation of the Jews, Peter was to have 
been produced as a spectacle on the morrow. Midnight, 
with its stillness, intervened. 

And here, again, by whom was it told that Peter was now 
sleeping between two soldiers bound by two chains ; that 
an angel stood by him ; that a light shined in the prison ; 
that the angel touched him on the side, and raised him up, 
saying, " Arise up quickly ; " that his chains fell over his 
hands ; that the angel said, " Gird thyself, and bind on thy 
sandals;" and again, "Cast thy garment about thee, and 
follow me ;" that, following the angel, he left the cell ; that, 
having passed the first and second wards, the iron gate 
that led into the city opened of its own accord ; and that, 
having conducted him through one street, the angel there- 
upon departed from him? Certainly, these incidents, so 
minutely related together with the impressions made by 
them upon his mind as they occurred, no one could have 
communicated but Peter himself. And that Mark was in a 
position to have heard Peter's first relation of them will 
presently appear. 

7. Peter's retirement to the house of Mary. " And when 
Peter had considered," or had recovered from sensations 
like those by which he had been overcome when on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, " he came to the house of Mary 
the mother of John, whose surname was Mark." Peter 
instinctively turned towards the house of his abode when 
sojourning in Jerusalem. If, in this case, tradition may 
be trusted, this house was situated in Zion, or upper city of 
Jerusalem. It was a house of respectable dimensions, 
having been entered by a gate opening into a vestibule, 
or atrium. The hostess maintained a corresponding hospi- 
tality. " A gracious woman retaineth honour " (Prov. xi. 



108 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

16). The names of saints are quoted in Holy Scripture 
for memorials. It is, therefore, proper that we stand before 
these memorials meditatively. This Mary was one of the 
mothers in the new Israel. Her brother, Barnabas, was a 
Levite, and had, therefore, been a minister in the temple, 
and he had become one of Christ's own converts. Of him, 
who sold his estate for the solace of disciples injured by 
persecution, Mary was a true sister. Her house was a re- 
sort of the apostles ; and, perhaps, had sometimes been 
visited by Jesus himself. It has been thought that it was 
to her house that the apostles repaired when they returned 
from the farewell scene with their Lord on the mount 
overlooking Bethany • for it is written " they went up (to 
Zion ?) into an upper room, where abode Peter and the 
rest " (i. 13). And, also, it is thought, that it was in the 
same room, the apostles being assembled, that the Holy 
Ghost descended, and conferred upon them the gift of 
tongues. 

Here, on the night of Peter's rescue, " many were 
gathered together in the upper room praying." Here was 
" a church in the house," and here one of the companies 
by whom prayer was made for Peter without ceasing. 
Perhaps, forming part of this company, were apostles 
lodging in the house (i. 13). "Peter knocked at the door 
of the gateway ;" " a damsel came to hearken " (indicative 
of the fear that prevailed within lest a messenger from 
the king had come for another victim) " named Ehoda " — 
(Rose) — a precision only to be accounted for by these par- 
ticulars having been communicated by a person familiar 
with the household. " And when she knew Peter's voice," 
having listened to distinguish, " she opened not the door 
for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before 
the gate." How characteristic of the impulsiveness of the 
maiden was this rushing to the upper room before having 
admitted him ! " And they said unto her, Thou art mad," 



A PARENTHESIS. 109 

so great was her ecstasy. " But she constantly affirmed 
that it was so." " Then, said they, it is his angel," or an 
apparition. They had forgotten, in their grief, Peter's 
former deliverances from prison. " But Peter continued 
knocking," whilst the company debated. "And when they 
had opened " — some of the company went with Ehoda to 
the door, having been still doubtful of the truth of her re- 
port, — " and seeing Peter, they were astonished." Because 
their prayers had not been answered before, they were 
losing hope. "But he, beckoning with his hand to hold their 
peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out 
of prison," Here, then, was made the first relation of these 
incidents ; and here, in his own mother's house, had been, 
at the same moment, Mark ; but who, having since travelled 
to Antioch, was now at Luke's elbow. Thus, obviously, 
appears the reason why Mary is distinguished " as the 
mother of John " (Mark), instead of the sister of Barnabas, 
which would otherwise have been a more appropriate de- 
signation. Can there be a doubt that from the lips of 
Mark were entered into Luke's note-book the particulars 
related in this chapter 1 

8. The disappointment of the persecutor. This was ex- 
pressed by his conduct, for when he had sought for Peter, 
and found him not, he examined the keepers, and com- 
manded that they should be put to death. " And " (having 
committed this other act of cruelty) " he went down from 
Judea to Cresarea and abode." In Jerusalem, Herod 
Agrippa was a worshipper in the temple of Jehovah ; in 
Csesarea, he was a pagan. How different was his conduct 
from what was afterwards that of the heathen magistrate, 
Gallio, at Corinth ! 

9. The death of Herod Agrippa. This was an event of 
public notoriety. His death at Csesarea is recorded by 
Josephus (Wars, ii. 11), whereby a testimony is afforded of 
the carefulness of Luke to admit only what was authentic. 



110 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

Luke's account, however, is given more at length than 
that of Josephus. And, moreover, as a physician, Luke 
describes the symptoms of the disease which preceded the 
king's death, and also, as a prophet, proclaims its retribu- 
tive character : "An angel of the Lord smote him." Herod 
Agrippa had been three years Tetrarch before he was a 
king, and had reigned three years in Palestine. He died 
A.D. 44. Probably " his hand had been stretched forth 
to vex the Church " much of the latter term. 

10. A cheerful conclusion. The killing, by the hands of 
officers of the king, of an apostle of Jesus Christ — the put- 
ting, by the same hands, another of his apostles into prison 
— the loosing of this apostle from the dungeon by an in- 
visible power — the execution of the soldiers appointed 
for his guards — the arrogant exhibition of himself in the 
theatre at Csesarea by Herod Agrippa — the sudden judg- 
ment that there befel him, were all circumstances calcu- 
lated to fill the public mind with awe, and impressively to 
call attention again to the facts concerning the crucified 
Jesus, and the doctrines proclaimed by His followers. 
Jesus had foretold to His disciples, " They shall lay their 
hands upon you, and put you into prison, and bring you 
before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall 
turn to you for a testimony''' (Luke xxi. 12, 13). This pro- 
phecy now received a fulfilment. And, for a conclusion to 
his account of the persecution of the Church by Herod 
Agrippa, Luke affirms, " But the word of the Lord grew and 
multiplied." The design of his whole book of the Acts was 
to report the progress made by the gospel nathless op- 
position. And by this conclusion of the Parenthesis is 
explained the motive which led to its insertion into his 
book. 



CHAPTER XII, 

AX ORDINATION OF APOSTLES TO GENTILES. 

The last verse of the twelfth chapter makes a proper be- 
ginning to the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, the scene 
again being Antiocli. " And Barnabas and Saul returned 
from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, 
and took with them John, whose surname was Mark." 
This is the first appearance of Mark in history. It is 
thought by some that the young man, who, in his Gospel, 
is represented as having escaped from the hands of the 
officers in the garden of Gethsemane, was himself, because 
that he only mentions that simple incident. He was the 
youngest of the Evangelists, being at this time not more 
than thirty years of age. With much gratification, Luke 
would have welcomed him to this field of service, where, 
from his acquaintance with evangelical history, he would 
prove for him a valuable auxiliary. 

The return of Barnabas and Saul brought joy to the 
brethren. The Church is prosperous. It is in the condi- 
tion of its first love. The freshness of their emancipation 
gives a glow to the piety of its members. Grateful love is 
the element of their lives. They are taught that the gospel 
is to be preached throughout the world, and, as Christians, 
they are ready to promote their Lord's design. A new 
development of the divine plan succeeded at this stage ; 
and it is in an enumeration of the chief pioneers in the 
holy ministry thereof that Luke's name for the first time 
occurs. This section of his history begins, "Now there 



112 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets 
and teachers." The names of these follow in the order of 
seniority ; and not inaptly may those that are mentioned 
be regarded in the light of representative persons. 

Barnabas, the first named, represents the Levites. He 
was chosen from an honourable condition in society. But 
his advantages were relinquished, for Christ. He is said 
by Eusebius to have been one of the seventy evangelists, 
which is probable. If so, he received his commission 
directly from the hands of Christ. Consequently he was 
one of Luke's eye-witnesses ; and along with other topics, 
their fellowship would prompt the relation which Luke has 
preserved of the mission of that class of ministers. The 
admirable commendation of him by his friend has already 
been noticed. That Barnabas had the positiveness which 
belongs to a fitness for great undertakings, the incident of 
his contention with St Paul illustrates ; whilst it likewise 
shows that he partook of the infirmity often stumbling san- 
guine minds (xv. 39). But oh ! how well does Barnabas 
deserve the grateful remembrance of every Gentile who has 
partaken the " consolation " of the gospel ! 

Simon Niger, the second named, represents the Africans. 
These played a very different part in the civilised world 
than they do now. They were found in all the great 
emporiums of the East, prosecuting, along with people of 
other complexions, the different branches of industry, and 
even of philosophy. This Simon was a Cyrenian ; and he 
is here called Niger, or black, to distinguish him as an 
aboriginal. The coincidence of this description, and what 
is related of him in the Gospels, is remarkable (Matt, xxvii. 
32 ; Mark xv. 21 ; Luke xxiii. 26). Upon the Passover 
memorable for the crucifixion of Christ he went to Jeru- 
salem, probably like Queen Candace's chamberlain, as a 
proselyte to engage in the solemnities of the season. He 
was coming out of the country just as Jesus had passed the 



AN ORDINATION. 113 

north gate, fainting under the beam of the cross upon 
which the sufferer was to be suspended, when he was 
arrested by the Koman guards, and compelled to bear it 
the rest of the distance to Calvary. It should be noticed 
that this incident was most opportune for the sufferer. 
Simon's countenance at once declared that he was not a 
Jew. And of all the thousands of Jews present at that 
sight, the guards could not have compelled one of them so 
much as to touch the beam ; for the reason that the doinsr 
so would have rendered the individual unclean, and con- 
sequently unfit for the celebration of the approaching 
festival. Moreover, it would have been offering an insult 
to the whole nation, which the very giving up of Jesus 
against his convictions shows Pilate could not afford to do. 
It is little to believe that this circumstance proved a turn- 
ing-point in Simon's life, and that his conversion to disciple- 
ship to Christ dated from the moment of his receiving that 
burden. That the evangelists should give such a special 
description of him intimates their acquaintance with him. 
If they had known no more concerning him than what was 
observed in that casualty, their words would have been, in 
the manner of the time, "a Libyan coming out of the 
country." His name would no more have transpired than 
does that of the soldier who pierced Christ's side ; whereas, 
not one only, but three of the evangelists, mention both his 
name and also his country. And there was a cause for this 
explicitness. The reason for it is found in the fact that he 
was in reality an important agent in this wondrous scene. 
After it was accomplished, and the disciples began to study 
its details under the light of the prophetic Scriptures, they 
perceived that, as Jesus fulfilled in His own person the type 
of the scape-goat, so by Simon was fulfilled that of the fit 
man, literally " the man of opportunity," who accompanied 
the type into the wilderness" (Lev. xvi. 21). And thus 
Matthew, who so much more than the other evangelists 

H 



114 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

illustrates his narrative by a reference to its fulfilment of 
Scripture, says, " And as they came out, they found a man 
of Cyrene • " in other words, the fit man of prophetic ap- 
pointment. And then, as to the acquaintance with Simon, 
which enabled them to furnish his name and country, and 
which also warranted this preciseness, the explanation is 
found in the same typical Scripture, " And he that let go 
the goat for the scape-goat shall wash his clothes and bathe 
his flesh in water, and afterwards come into the camp " 
(26). It surely will not be said that it is an undue 
spiritualising of this Scripture to say that there is seen in 
it a picture of the man's saving renewal by the Holy Ghost, 
his baptism by water, and thereupon his acceptance into the 
fellowship of Christ's saints. 

But this is not the only distinction which Simon gained 
at this time. A very early Scripture had said, " Cursed be 
Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be. And blessed 
be Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant" (Gen. ix. 25, 27). 
Christ was the lineal representative of Shem, and Simon 
was a descendant of Canaan. When, therefore, Simon bare 
the cross for Christ, he fulfilled this Scripture. And when 
also Christ upon that cross expiated the sins of the world, 
he thereby removed the curse that had followed the descend- 
ants of Canaan. And now Simon is the first of his race to 
taste the joy of that fellowship "where there is neither 
bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Col. iii. 11). 
No marvel that Simon should remain in Jerusalem, in the 
midst of this society. Nor is it surprising to find him 
accompanying a party of Cyrenians to Antioch. And here 
it should be remarked how aptly the mention of his name 
by Luke as Simon Niger, corresponds with the description 
of him in the Gospels as the Cyrenian. And, whatever 
might have been his secular calling, it is observable that he 
was favoured by Providence, and honoured by the brethren, 
for his service to Christ. His wife was a mother in the 



AN ORDINATION. 115 

new Israel. And from the affectionate terms in which St 
Paul afterwards speaks of her, in his Epistle to the Romans 
(xvi. 13), one can hardly help thinking that, like the sister 
of Barnabas at Jerusalem, she had been a daughter of con- 
solation, having accommodated the apostle in the only way 
in which it had been possible to attain the character which 
he there gives her — namely, in the assiduities of the 
domestic sphere at Antioch. Moreover, these distinguished 
disciples had two sons, who also were men of note in the 
Church — Alexander and Eufus. It is Mark who adds this in- 
formation. His acquaintance with the family in this place 
would suggest the notice, for his Gospel was written after- 
wards. She had removed -with her son to Eome before the 
apostle wrote, " Salute Eufus, chosen in the Lord, and his 
mother and mine." Probably she had become a widow. 
All these particulars correspond with Simon's place as 
second in seniority in Luke's list of prophets and teachers. 

It ought to have been mentioned that his name is here 
spelt Simeon, but so is Simon Peter's (Acts xv. 14) ; although, 
in his Gospel, Luke had written both of them Simon. But 
however this discrepance arose, of the identity in both 
cases there is never entertained any doubt. 

Lucius, the Cyrenian, the third named, represents the 
inquisitive Greeks, who, not inappropriately, is found in the 
centre of the fraternity, concerning whom his habit of 
notation has preserved important memorials. He was now 
about the age of sixty, having Barnabas and Simon for his 
seniors, which may well be supposed ; the one having a 
nephew capable of being a minister, and the other having 
two sons afterwards notable in the Church. That Luke's 
name has not appeared before disappoints curiosity. Dr 
Olshausen, denying that Lucius was the evangelist, makes 
this assertion — " It is impossible that Luke should have 
mentioned himself amongst the more distinguished leaders 
of the Church." But perhaps this, like some other impos- 



116 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

sibilities that have been treated, may be dissipated by a 
little reflection. When residing in Palestine, Luke had 
appeared only as a private individual. Not until he was in 
another country does his name transpire. At Antioch, in 
a church of Gentiles, he was an accredited teacher. And 
now the occasion does not admit of the omission of his 
name. Serving for an official document, a list of those 
upon whom it devolved to inaugurate an apostolate to the 
Gentile world, was to be given. But the list would have 
been incomplete if Luke's modesty had induced the omission 
of his own name. Moreover, did he not afterwards class 
himself with Paul, Silas, and Timothy, at Troas and at 
Philippi ; and again with Paul, upon several occasions 1 

The difficulties which have been raised to the recognition 
of the Evangelist by the name of Lucius have been already 
discussed in the chapter concerning " The Identity of Luke, 
Lucas, and Lucius." It may, however, be repeated here 
that he wrote his name in that form by which he was known 
in Rome, where his book of the Acts was written, and by 
which he had been accustomed to hear himself addressed 
during his residence there, and which, as a Roman citizen, 
he would not repudiate. Had his situation been different, 
instead of Lucius he had written Lucas (Loukas) in Greek, 
corresponding with the place of his nativity. And what 
adds to the force of this explanation is, that Simon the 
Cyrenian is treated like Lucius, receiving the Latin epithet 
of Niger instead of the Greek Melas, both words signifying 
dark or black. Had Luke only repeated concerning Simon 
what he had said in his Gospel, namely, that he was a 
Cyrenian, the description would not have conveyed the 
ethnological difference which subsisted between Simon 
and himself, the former being an aboriginal African, and it 
would not have been generally known that the Simon of 
the Gospels and of the Acts were identical. It was a case, 
therefore, that suggested the adoption of the popular mode 



AN ORDINATION. 117 

when speaking of natives of Cyrenaica, which distinguished 
them as the black and the white Cyrenians. Luke's own 
name required no such special epithet, as it conveys the 
idea of shining or fair. It is known that the Greeks of 
Cyrene (as the Americans before their late war) were 
very tenacious to preserve the purity of their European 
descent. 

Manaen, the fourth named in this list, represents the 
Helvetians. He is designated Manaen the suntrophos of Herod 
the Tetrarch. Suntrophos was a characteristic title sometimes 
borne by the individual through life, according to the station 
and merits of the partner. As this Herod's father (Herod 
the Great) was an Idumean by descent, and his mother was 
a Samaritan, it is probable that neither was Manaen a pure 
Hebrew. And this agrees also with his position on this 
side of Luke. Herod Antipas succeeded to the tetrarchy 
of Galilee about the third year of Christ, and therefore, 
reckoning Herod and Manaen to have been nearly of the 
same age, the latter could have been very little younger than 
Luke. In Manaen we have an example of divine grace 
bestowed, and of signal honour put upon one who had been 
brought up in a court. Whilst Herod, with his men of war, 
had mocked Jesus, and had been accessory to his death, 
Manaen was here a confessor for that same Jesus, having 
left his home to seek an asylum from persecution, and was 
now identified with the disciples of Jesus, and engaged in 
promoting their consolation. And who may tell the im- 
portance of the services of this confessor in the protection 
of the Christians at Antioch by means of his influence ; or 
the extent of the benefit he conferred in commending the 
truth to persons among the upper class of society there? 
The Gospel calls men to salvation ; but it likewise calls the 
saved to a life of sympathetic exertion. The place that 
Manaen occupies in this list, in company with " prophets 
and teachers," is at once an evidence of his devotion to the 



US BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

cause of Christ, and a distinguished memorial of the divine 
favour shown to a member of aristocracy. 

It is pleasing to think that to the intimacy of Manaen 
with Luke we are probably indebted for the graphic 
description of the scene upon the sending of Jesus by the 
governor of Judea to Herod (Luke xxiii. 8-12). None 
of the other evangelists speak of that circumstance, although 
they could not have failed to know of its occurrence. The 
supplementary notice, which observes that Pilate and 
Herod, who had been at variance, were hereupon recon- 
ciled, is a piece of secret history which savours of having 
been brought directly from the precincts of the court : and 
when oft in friendly conference, Luke may likewise have 
derived from Manaen some other incidents in his Gospel, 
but which are not so easily to be recognised. Nor was 
Manaen the only trophy gained from the palace of the 
tetrarch. There had been Joanna, the wife of Chuza, his 
steward, who had had the blissful honour to minister to 
Jesus in some of his journeys (Luke viii. 2, 3). 

Saul, the last in the list, represents the sect of the Phari- 
sees. " After the most strictest sect of our religion I lived a 
Pharisee," are his own words addressed to Agrippa- He is 
an example of the grace of Christ towards one of the most 
zealous partisans of the only class of whom our Lord had 
ever spoken with severity. Saul's natural temperament 
was the antipodes of Christ's. Bat, sanctified and con- 
trolled, it was made to subserve heroically the fulfilment of 
the divine purpose "of the Gospel. Formerly he had taken 
a commission from a council of the covenanted enemies of 
Christ, and had furiously fulfilled it. But now he is in a 
council engaged in projecting the extension of the cause he 
had sought to destroy. Only the grace of Christ could 
achieve a revolution like this. At this time Saul was about 
the age of thirty-eight, being eighteen or twenty years 
younger than any of his reverend seniors. 



AN ORDINATION. 119 

Besides those enumerated, there were other prophets and 
teachers at Antioch. Mark was here at this moment, and 
perhaps Titus. There had been a Nicolas of Antioch in the 
primitive Church at Jerusalem, who might have been here, 
as others likewise. But the narrative only deals with those 
named in the list. 

The solicitude of this company is expressed by the words, 
"As they ministered to the Lord and fasted." Their atti- 
tude was that of practical self-denial. It was a season of 
anxious inquiry concerning the work of promoting the 
divine design in Antioch. They were affected with the 
magnitude of their responsibility. The city was very great, 
and so was its moral darkness. Their language would be 
" As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their 
masters, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." At 
length a divine revelation is made to them. " Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
them." This monition implies — (1) that the disciples at 
Antioch had not understood the import of Christ's charge to 
the extent of its universality ; (2) that Barnabas and Saul 
had only laboured in a manner preliminary to the greater 
undertaking proposed therein ; (3) that the signification of 
Christ's charge is to receive a further development. And 
here it may be asked, How was this divine communication 
made^ Usually God reveals His will through a chosen 
agent. In this case Barnabas and Saul are excluded, being 
themselves the subjects of the communication. And of the 
other three of the company, to which of them will proba- 
bility point as having, after receiving it, given vocal utter- 
ance to the monrtion, but to him who is in the centre of the 
group — namely, to the prophet Luke 1 

The consecration of Barnabas and Saul, in compliance 
with the divine monition, is described. "And when they 
had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they 
sent them away." Here it is to be observed — (1) there was 



120 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

an interval between the command and its performance ; (2) 
the interval was spent in an exercise of devout intercession 
in behalf of those now constituted apostles to the Gentiles ; 
(3) the three laid hands upon the two. And here it must 
be thought that the acts of ordination and dismissal were 
accompanied by a suitable address. In this address allu- 
sions would not fail to be made to the inscrutable way in 
which these servants of Christ had hitherto been led. The 
period would be reviewed during which they had laboured 
together in Antioch under the divine auspices, and in happy 
fellowship : and as well the prayers which they had 
offered, as their mutual affection, would prompt an expres- 
sion of assured sympathy with the apostles during their 
absence. And, again, who is expected to have been the 
one who spake these sentiments upon that solemnity 1 ? 
Surely Luke. 

The credentials and departure of the apostles are set 
down together. The credentials are contained in the 
words, " So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." 
This is a very important notice. It affirms that the ordina- 
tion which had been accomplished having been by divine 
command, so the mission was God's. Moreover, that it 
was not man's mission appears from the consideration, that 
the dismissal of the apostles would be regarded as being 
contrary to the convenience of the Church at Antioch, 
w^here they had laboured w T ith so much acceptance and 
success ; and also from the consideration, that it must 
have been equally contrary to the inclination of those by 
whose hands they had been separated unto their calling. 

Here it should be observed, — 1. That apostles were an 
intermediate order, endued with an authority none since 
them have professed. Where, then, is a succession of 
apostles 1 2. That the first and the last persons on this 
list were chosen to be apostles from Antioch ; and that 
these were the only Jews of the company. But the first 



AN ORDINATION. 121 

apostles to Gentile countries must needs have been Jews ; 
because none but Jews could have fulfilled the injunction, 
that to the Jews the gospel was first of all to be preached. 
And this could only have been done in the synagogues, 
wherein none but Jews were permitted to minister. 3. "And 
" here," adds Charles Taylor, " we ought not to overlook 
the wisdom of the appointment made by the Holy Ghost 
in uniting Barnabas and Saul in the same mission : one 
was the oldest, the other was the youngest, of the teachers 
at Antioch : the sedateness of one would temper the lire 
of the other : the character of Barnabas as a son of con so- 
tion, as ' a good man,' mild, courteous, a man of experience, 
who had long been a companion of the apostles, and was 
familiar with their views of things, admirably combined 
with the fervour of his younger friend, whose greater 
activity and promptitude would induce and enable him to 
improve every opening, to spend and be spent in all direc- 
tions, to discern possible advantages, and to act on the 
contingencies in cases to his less vigorous partner might 
appear dubious, if not imprudent, or which he might think 
himself not altogether competent to." 

Nor will the student fail to admire the chain connecting 
the dismissal of Saul from Jerusalem by the brethren there, 
and his recovery by Barnabas from the retirement to which 
he had been consigned at Tarsus with his present appoint- 
ment, along with that same tried friend, to this apostleship 
of the uncircumcision. Several writers assert that Saul 
had already been made an apostle by the words addressed 
to him from heaven in his progress to Damascus. Was he 
then an apostle before his baptism by Ananias 1 This is 
surely a strange position to be taken. But that this 
ordination at Antioch constituted his appointment to an 
apostleship, is manifest by the consideration that, had his 
ordination dated from the miraculous appearing of Jesus 
to him, his appointment hitherto, although it had satisfied 



122 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

himself, would not have been adequate proof for others ; 
whereas a divine command, executed by those who were 
delegated to ordain, was within the scope of acceptable 
evidence. It was Jesus who had called Barnabas to be an 
evangelist, and Saul to be a chosen vessel to bear His name 
to the Gentiles. And now it was the Spirit of Jesus that 
said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul to the work where- 
unto I have called them." The call, therefore, was one 
thing, and the ordination another. Harmonious herewith 
are Paul's own subsequent representations throughout his 
history. A reference to this ordination is set in the front 
of almost all his epistles as his claim for recognition as an 
apostle. He denominates himself " an apostle of Jesus 
Christ, by the will of God ;" this will having been ex- 
pressed to Luke and his associates. These inscriptions of 
his Epistles are worthy of especial notice. Together with 
the formula of benediction with which every epistle is con- 
cluded, they furnish a key-note to the apostle's entire cor- 
respondence. 

The dismissal of the apostles is related in the words, 
" They departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed 
to Cyprus." Seleucia was the nearest port on the Medi- 
terranean. It was consistent that, as the native country of 
Barnabas, Cyprus should be chosen for the first field of 
missionary operations. In this mission Luke and his asso- 
ciates beheld the commencement of a new epoch. The 
divine purpose had been moving on from age to age, 
shadowed for a season, yet during the season promising 
the outstretching of the divine arms and the gathering of 
all people into their embrace. The Holy Ghost had said, 
by the voice of the prophet, " It is a light thing that thou 
(Messiah) shouldst be my servant, to raise the tribes of 
Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will also 
give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be 
my salvation unto the end of the earth " (Isa. xlix. 6). This 



AN ORDINATION. 123 

Scripture was now fulfilled ; Messiah, in the person of 
Jesus, had appeared. He had charged His disciples, say- 
ing, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature." A ministry to the Gentiles had been 
ordained; and now the agents in the ordination of these 
pioneers stood upon the threshold of that revolution which 
was destined to bless the world. 

In the ordination of apostles to Gentiles is observed an- 
other important link in the chain connecting the prophetic 
charge of Christ with its progressive fulfilment. It is 
usually reckoned that this ordination was solemnised 
A.D. 45. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A REPORT OF THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSION. 

Three of those who had ministered in word and doctrine 
in the Church at Antioch having departed, there remained as 
its teachers Luke, Simon, and Manaen, and probably some 
others. Among these, the Evangelist was the chief ; and 
upon him the care of the Church must now have largely 
devolved. Those teachers who had fasted and prayed in 
view of their situation before the appointment of the 
apostles to their sphere of labour, had a new incentive to 
do the same under their present burden of responsibility. 
But, besides the care of the Church, their sympathies 
would be constantly drawn to the mission. They had en- 
gaged, along with the members of the Church, in a measure 
novel to the world. Never had any sect adopted such a 
method of propagating its tenets. There may, therefore, 
have been among them some waverers to discourage the 
undertaking. Perhaps some, being Jewish converts, had 
opposed it. For neither had the Jews ever witnessed for 
God in the world after this manner. Nevertheless, the 
happy experience of the grace of the gospel upon them- 
selves, as Gentles, influenced the majority of the members 
of the Church to hopefulness. And, elevated in faith by 
the teaching of the Word, prayer was made by the Church 
continually in behalf of the consecrated band and the 
success of their enterprise. During the absence of the 
apostles there must have occurred many incidents at 
Antioch concerning which curiosity craves to be informed. 



FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSION. 125 

But however interesting the character of the Church, 
and important the work in which, with his coadjutors, 
Luke was engaged, the relation of those incidents being 
beside his design, he proceeds in his narrative to follow 
the course of the apostles. This he does in the 13th 
and 14th chapters of his history. To understand the order 
of events as they concern Luke himself, reference must be 
made, first of all, to the passage wherein the announcement 
is made of their return (xiv. 26, 27). Every word of this 
passage is important, and is also pregnant with the writer's 
feeling of gratification. It relates — (1) "From Attalia 
they sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been re- 
commended to the grace of G-od for the work which they 
had fulfilled." (2) " And when they were come, and had 
gathered the Church together, they rehearsed all that God 
had done with them ; and how he had opened the door of 
faith to the Gentiles." By the words, " And when they 
were come," the fact of the continued residence of Luke in 
Antioch is evident. Here Paul and Barnabas are represented 
as rehearsing before the congregated Church the incidents 
of their mission ; and Luke appears before the reader as 
being again seated beside his friends, filled with grateful 
admiration of the grace bestowed upon them, and with love 
and reverence for their persons. That was a happy meet- 
ting for the Gentile Evangelist ; and, charmed with the 
anecdotes related by the apostles to the assembly, and with 
their heroism and success, he reduces the substance of their 
acts and addresses to a narrative adapted to the plan of 
his history, after the same manner that he had incorporated 
the communication received from Mark, which occupies 
the 12th chapter. The report of their proceedings, thus 
derived, fulfils two essential parts of his plan — namely, that 
which relates to the fulfilment of the Lord's charge, and 
that which concerns the admission into his pages only of 
those things either observed by himself or obtained from the 



126 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

lips of agents or eye-witnesses. This Report describes what 
is commonly called Paul's first journey. It is preceded by 
an intimation of the discontinuance of the Hebrew name 
Saul, and of the future use of the Roman Paul, conformable 
with the appointed sphere of his labours. The narrative now 
reverses the order followed in the previous naming of the 
two apostles, Paul being placed before Barnabas, albeit the 
latter was the senior. The course of their journey seems to 
have been influenced by personal predilections ; for Cyprus 
was the native country of Barnabas, and the provinces in 
Asia Minor were contiguous to Cilicia,the birthplace of Paul. 
It is observable, moreover, that the Report contains only a 
sample of the proceedings of the apostles. In C3^prus only 
two places are mentioned — one at one end of the island, 
and one at the other end of it ; and only two incidents — 
one of opposition, and one of success. Yet there were 
several towns in the island, and the time occupied there 
must have been considerable ; and that it was a time of ad- 
venturous trial appears from the notice that Mark relin- 
quished the mission as soon as the company returned to 
the continent. Of places visited in Asia Minor only six 
are mentioned, and of particular incidents only three. Yet 
the apostle spent nearly twelve months in the provinces 
specified. 

Besides its. historical importance, the Report invites at- 
tention as a continued illustration of the writer's method. 
With Him by whose ^race the Evangelist wrote the past 
and present are the same. Hence the undeclared but sen- 
sible link which is preserved throughout the holy records, 
each portion having a prophetic correspondence with an- 
other. Here the correspondence goes back to our Lord's 
manifestation of His person to Saul of Tarsus ; to the ex- 
clamation of this chosen vessel, " Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do ? " and to the divine communication made to 
the prophet at Damascus, "I will show him how great things 



FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSION. 127 

he must suffer for my name's sake " — premonitions which 
all found their fulfilment in Paul's history. The incidents 
of this journey seem to have been selected by Luke to show 
how the doctrine preached in Asia Minor, and the results 
following, corresponded with what had been witnessed of the 
fulfilment of Christ's charge in Jerusalem. In the discourse 
delivered by Paul at Antioch in Pisidia is shown the man- 
ner in which he preached the doctrine which in Judaea he 
had formerly sought to destroy. It corresponds largely, 
and in some parts literally, with the discourse of Peter on 
the day of Pentecost, and with that of Stephen before the 
Sanhedrim. In the cure of a cripple at Lystra there is a 
marked correspondence with the miracle performed upon 
the cripple by Peter and John before the Beautiful Gate at 
Jerusalem. Here, he who had witnessed and abetted the 
martyrdom of Stephen was himself stoned until left for 
dead. Like Peter and John at Jerusalem, who, undis- 
mayed by scourging and imprisonment, upon their deliver- 
ance, returned to the temple to proclaim again the gospel ; 
so here, Paul and Barnabas, retracing their steps, boldly re- 
visited every place from which they had been expelled, con- 
firming the disciples, and declaring to them, by word and 
example, that " we must through much tribulation enter the 
kingdom." And equally did the parallel extend to the re- 
sults of the mission ; for as in Jerusalem there were 
thousands of whom it was said, " they glady received the 
word," — " they were filled with the Holy Ghost " — " the 
Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved ; " 
so, in speaking of "what God had done with them" in 
Asia Minor, Paul and Barnabas now testified how, when, 
upon the " contradiction and blaspheming " of the Jews, 
they turned to the Gentiles, justifying the act by words of 
prophecy how the Gentiles, when they heard them, " were 
glad, and glorified the word of the Lord ; " how, " as 
many as were ordained to eternal life believed ;" how " the 



128 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT I<UKE. 

disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost ; 
and then, finally, in their declaration, that " God had 
opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles," was found an 
illustration of the leading argument of Luke's book. And 
what gave to the relation made by the apostles its deep 
interest to the Antiochian Christians was the evidence that 
the object of their solicitude was gained, whilst the great 
success of the mission tended to confirm themselves in the 
faith, and also to establish their claims to be regarded as a 
church of Christ, Gentiles though they were. 

The peculiar phrase, " the door," in relation to preaching 
the gospel, does not occur again in the New Testament, 
except as written by Paul, by whom it is twice employed, 
namely, 1 Cor. xvi. 9, and 2 Cor. ii. 12. Its Pauline char- 
acter sanctions the view which has been here taken of the 
derivation of Luke's report. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A CONTROVERSY IN THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH. 

After their return to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas " there 
abode not a brief time with the disciples." And although 
Luke was in their company, yet, in accordance with the 
plan of his narrative, he produces only a single occurrence 
of the period, being one which bore an important relation 
to the work of fulfilling Christ's charge to spread the gospel. 
In this work he had taken an active part ever since he left 
Jerusalem. Having " put his hand to the plough," every 
impediment to the progress of the work was regarded by 
him with consistent anxiety. Such an impediment is de- 
scribed, together with the conduct of the Church in relation 
to it, in the 15th chapter, jfrom the 1st to the 35th verse. 
This passage forms another of those literary pictures 
which probably obtained for him the credit of having been 
a painter. This tablet embraces the several particulars 
ensuing. 

1. A litigious party. " Certain men that came from 
Judea." These are spoken of by Paul in his Epistle to the 
Galatians as "false brethren unawares introduced, who 
came privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ" 
(ii. 4). 

2. The dogma of this party. " They taught the brethren, 
saying, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of 
Moses, ye cannot be saved." Circumcision here included all 
the existing ritualism of the law. These men admit of no 
compromise, but abruptly pronounce the dismal alternative 
of their own judgment. 

I 



1 30 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

3. A controversy. " When, therefore, Paul and Barnabas 
had no small dissension and disputation with them." The 
mention only of these does not preclude the probability that 
Luke and others, deeply interested in the subject, took no 
part in the debate. But here were fortunately Jews taking 
part with Gentiles against Jews. By this exclusive men- 
tion of his two friends, Luke gave honour to whom it 
was pre-eminently due. It was now that Paul was led to 
study the question of the pretended continued obligation of 
Mosaic ritualism, and that he came to declare his convic- 
tion of the efficacy of the grace of Christ above all, and to 
the exclusion of all other grounds of salvation, as after- 
wards expounded in his Epistle to the Galatians. 

4. A deputation appointed. " They (that is, the Church) 
determined that Paul and Barnabas, and other of them, should 
go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this 
question." This question had been agitated in Antioch before, 
Peter himself having urged it (Gal. ii. 1 1). Therefore, both 
for their own welfare, and for the interest of Gentile churches 
in other places and in all times, the Antiochians determined 
to appeal to those who had the mind of Christ, having been 
His personal ministers. The propriety of the appointment 
of Barnabas to this mission appears from his having been 
one of the elders of the Church at Jerusalem, and that he 
had come to Antioch as their messenger upon the tidings 
having reached them of the conversion of Gentiles here. 
Influenced by an enlarged charity, he had not enjoined cir- 
cumcision ; nor had there ever been offered any remon- 
strance by the apostles at Jerusalem against the omission 
of it. Peter had before admitted Gentiles to baptism on 
the same terms ; and the question had, upon that occasion, 
been debated and settled in favour of the freedom of Gen- 
tiles. Consequently, Barnabas repaired to Jerusalem to 
obtain a formal ratification of a principle which had already 
been conceded. Paul went as an agent that had received 



A CONTRO VERS Y AT A NTIOCH. 131 

a special appointment to the great work in progress. He 
says that he went by revelation (Gal. ii. 2). He went to ex- 
plain the manner in which he had executed his trust, and 
to set forth the results. The " certain other of them" in- 
cluded Gentle converts, among whom was Titus (Gal. ii. 3). 
This is the first appearance of Titus. Dr George Benson 
supposes that he belonged to Antioch (" Planting Christi- 
anity," p. 389). And with this agrees the fact that he was 
a convert of Paul's, as the designation of him, " my son in 
the faith," implies (Titus i. 4). It also consists with his 
accompanying this mission in the character of a represen- 
tative of those whose cause was to be argued at Jerusalem. 
A visit to the apostles and brethren there would be a good 
preparative for his future ministry. 

5. The journey of the deputies to Jerusalem. "And being 
brought on their way by the Church." The expense, there- 
fore, of the journey was provided by the Christian com- 
munity of Antioch. This godly custom of the Church is 
spoken of in the same words in the third Epistle of John, 
ver. 6. 7. Nevertheless, it is amusing to observe, how 
some commentators, and of the most recent date, regarding 
the Church at Antioch as already a great corporate body, 
see in this journey a " public embassy " brought on its way 
by a suitable " escort ! " (Webster and Wilkinson's note 
thereupon). 

At this point Luke ceases to be the observer, and writes 
from the report made by Paul and Barnabas after their re- 
turn to Antioch. His picture, however, retains its char- 
acter, bearing an impress of his deep personal interest in 
every part. Here, then, leaving Luke at Antioch, the 
narrative follows the deputation. 

6. A touch of sympathy occurs. " They passed through 
Phenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gen- 
tiles ; and they caused great joy unto all the brethren."' 
This intelligence was gratifying to Luke, who had been in 



] 32 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

company with the party by whom the gospel was first 
preached in Phenicia. 

7. The reception of the deputies by the Church at Jerusalem. 
" And when they were come, they were received of the 
Church and of the apostles and elders." This was the 
second time Paul and Barnabas had come from Antioch 
deputed by the Church to Jerusalem. Upon the former 
occasion they had been the bearers of the first-fruits of the 
conversion of Gentiles in the form of a contribution to the 
poor brethren of Judea. That loving embassy was not for- 
gotten. And the deputation was welcomed accordingly. 
But prior to the announcement of the object of their pre- 
sent mission, Paul obtained a private interview " with them 
of reputation" (Gal. ii. 2). To these, before the subject 
of the mission was publicly debated, he would adduce the 
warrant of his apostleship. This preparatory conference 
was, moreover, prudential, as it regarded his situation with 
Peter, whom Paul had warmly opposed at Antioch on the 
very question upon the merits of which this apostle would 
now be found in the position of an adjudicator. 

8. A public audience. " And they declared all things that 
God had done with them." These are the same words em- 
ployed to introduce the Report made at Antioch of the first 
missionary journey of these apostles. It is probable, there- 
fore, that the events of that journey formed a chief part of 
what they here " declared." 

9. An opposition. " There rose up certain of the sect of 
the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was needful to 
circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of 
Moses." The " certain men " who were the occasion of the 
present debate, belonged to this party. With Jews, and 
especially those that had been Pharisees, it would have been 
difficult, perhaps impossible, to cast off the habits of 
thought and practice nurtured in Judaism. Conformity 
with its peculiarities had not been formally prohibited. 



A CONTROVERSY AT ANTIOCH. 133 

The belief in Jesus as the Messiah abolished the rites of 
sacrifice, but the temple and synagogue were visited as 
before by the devout disciple. There was no sudden de- 
parture from the national customs. And none but Jews 
had been admitted bishops in Judea until after the misfor- 
tunes of the Jews in the reign of Hadrian had suggested the 
choice of a Gentile as a means of marking more fully the 
difference that existed between Christian Jews and the 
rebellious. 

10. A second audience. " And the apostles and elders 
came together to consider this matter.'' The debate, 
therefore, had been adjourned, that the subject might be 
referred to the especial consideration of these ; and this 
resolution was agreeable, also, with the express intention 
of the mission. The Pharisees, however, renewed their 
opposition. 

11. Peter's apologij for the Gentiles. "And after much 
disputing, Peter rose up." From the glimpse of his speech 
conveyed in the condensed report of it preserved by Luke, 
it must have been very impressive. And admitting, as 
the company did, a divine interposition in the case of the 
conversion of Cornelius, to which it immediately referred, 
the argument was conclusive. Xo word of opposition 
appears after this. The speech was a triumph for the 
Gentiles. Here was the apostle of the circumcision 
admitting the burdensomeness of ceremonial ordinances, 
and openly pleading that the yoke should not be put upon 
the neck of the disciples. But even more striking are the 
words with which, as one of those to whom the appeal was 
made, he delivered his opinion. Against the objection of 
the Pharisees, he takes a lower ground for Jews than could 
ever have been conceived. The extent (geographically) of 
the work among the heathen compared with what was 
witnessed among themselves, and the abundance of gifts 
and holy influence bestowed upon preachers and converts, 



134 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

led him to invert the natural order of thought when he 
concluded, " We believe that through the grace of Jesus 
Christ we shall saved even as they" — or, more literally, "in 
the same manner as they." In all this the policy of Paul's 
private interview with Peter appears ; nor less so the can- 
dour of Peter. This is Luke's last notice of this distinguished 
apostle ; and it is inexpressibly gratifying to find it is so 
admirably characteristic. 

12. The hearing given to the deputies from Antioch. Peter 
had argued the case from the point of view which his own 
experience suggested. He had thereby secured a favour- 
able hearing of what should be advanced from other ex- 
periences. " Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave 
audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles 
and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by 
them." The change in the position of the names of these 
apostles marks Luke's exactness. Barnabas was heard first, 
having been an original member of the Church here. As 
no outline of the address of either of them is given, it is to 
be concluded that the substance of what they declared was an 
echo of the Eeport made at Antioch concerning their recent 
missionary tour. " The miracles and wonders which God 
had then done by them " were adduced as the signs and 
evidences of their apostleship to the Gentiles, and also of 
the divine acceptance of these through their preaching. 
And even as Peter produced his witnesses when arraigned 
in the case of Cornelius, so Barnabas and Paul were pro- 
vided with theirs in the persons of Titus and others, being 
examples of the grace bestowed upon the uncircumcised. 

13. An appeal is made by James to the divine design con- 
cerning the Gentiles as revealed in prophecy; and his 
opinion is expressed in conformity therewith. This was 
James the son of Alpheus, and a cousin or kinsman of our 
Lord. The assembly being now in possession of the facts 
of the case, James stood up as an interpreter of those facts. 



A CONTR VERS Y AT A NT 10 CH. 135 

He quoted a prophecy ; and he showed how those facts 
fulfilled it. And he inferred that God had foreseen and 
decreed what they had heard. Both his speech and the 
whole of the proceedings show how reluctant the Jews had 
been to admit the Gentiles to communion except through 
the gate of proselytism. They had acknowledged God's 
sovereignty in conferring the gifts of His Spirit in the case 
of Cornelius and his household, seven years before, yet they 
seem only now to awaken to a due perception of the divine 
design with respect to Gentiles, notwithstanding that per- 
haps already the number of members composing the Church 
at Antioch exceeded those in the Church at Jerusalem, 
whilst those in fellowship in Phenicia, Syria, and Asia 
Minor probably exceeded those in Palestine. The intelli- 
gence brought by Barnabas and Paul concerning the gifts 
and grace bestowed upon those converts forced the con- 
viction upon the assembly expressed in James's speech. 
This speech must have been of considerable length com- 
pared with what is quoted. Its conclusion harmonised with 
the feeling which had been elicited, " Wherefore I judge" — 
not " my sentence is," which is a glossarial turn"; but liter- 
ally, as in the Roman vulgate, Ego judico, in the sense of 
expressing an opinion. The same Greek verb is used, and in 
the same sense, Acts iv. 19, " Judge ye," and in 2 Cor. v. 
14, "We thus judge," or conclude. The judgment pro- 
posed by James was, " that we trouble not the brethren 
which, from among the Gentiles, be turned (are turning) to 
God." A commentator remarks, " It is well Peter had not 
said this." But Peter had said the equivalent when, as a 
defendant in his own case, he concluded, " Forasmuch then 
as God gave them like gifts as unto us, what was I that I 
should withstand God " (xi. 17). Peter then meant to say, 
" I simply obeyed God ;" and now both he and James mean 
to say, " Let us obey God's voice as spoken to us in the 
facts which have been brought under review." Peter says, 



136 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

" Let us not put a yoke upon them;" James says, " Let us 
not trouble the brethren." Where, then, is the priority of 
these holy men 1 It had been forbidden by their Master, 
and it is not found here. 

But James further recommended that a letter should 
be written, including a proviso requiring abstinence from 
a moral impurity very prevalent among the heathen, and 
from certain other things regarded as impurities by 
Jews. This caution was suggested from the fact that 
there were synagogues in the chief cities of the world, 
in which Jews and proselytes were wont to meet to- 
gether to read the Holy Scriptures. The injunction was, 
therefore, grounded on the principle of avoiding giving any 
offence. Happy had it been for the Church in subsequent 
ages if the spirit prompting this caution had been held 
sacred ! The conduct of James on this occasion harmonised 
with his own description of the particular grace which it 
discovered (Epistle of St James iii. 17, 18). 

14. The decision of the assembly. This seems to have 
been unanimous, the proviso having silenced the Pharisees. 
And now the apostles and elders and the ivhole Church con- 
curring, action succeeds conference. And emulating the 
fraternal consideration of the Church at Antioch in both 
this and their former mission to Jerusalem, they too 
i( chose men out of their own company to send to Antioch 
with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas Barsabas, and 
Silas, chief men among the brethren." A Barsabas had 
been selected as a candidate for the apostleship along with 
Matthias (i. 23). Here is another of the name chosen for 
his qualification to be their representative in an assembly 
of Gentiles. ' 

15. A document furnished to the deputies. The produc- 
tion of this affords another instance of Luke's exactness. 
It also shows the important light in which this controversy 
and its termination was regarded by the Gentile Churches. 



A COXTR VERS Y AT A XT 10 CH. 137 

The document would henceforth serve as their charter. It 
bears an impress of the effect produced by the statements 
of Paul and Barnabas. It is no technical manifesto. Its 
teuor is entirely conciliatory. It addresses and greets as 
"brethren" the Gentiles of the Church at Antioch and of 
the churches which had been founded by the two apostles. 
It repudiates the conduct of those who would i; subvert 
their souls " by the imposition which it had been the object 
of the present mission to frustrate. It speaks of the dele- 
gates as " our beloved Barnabas and Paul."' And. in allusion 
to what had been related by them, it recognises them as 
"men that had hazarded their lives for the name of Christ." 
It intimates the mission of Judas and Silas to ratify by 
word of mouth the sentiments therein expressed. And in 
imparting the result of the deliberations concluded, it pro- 
fesses that they had been conducted under a divine influ- 
ence, " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us," 
&e. 

It is usual to «w dignify this fraternal assembly at Jeru- 
salem by denominating it the " First Council of the Chris- 
tian Church." Did it, however, belong to the category of 
councils, commonly so called, it should be accounted the 
second council ; the first having been the deliberation con- 
cerning Peter's admission of Gentiles to baptism seven years 
before. Between this assembly and the proper series of 
ecclesiastical councils, those who have read anything of 
their history find, among other important discrepancies, 
that here was no exclusion of unofficial brethren ; here was 
no golden chair, as at Xicaea, no formulary of belief im- 
posed, no anathema pronounced, and no scenes afterwards 
of the disputants engaged in mortal strife, as between 
Arians and Athanasians. A note of a recent expositor 
under this place is curious. It represents the organisation 
of the Church for settling controversies to consist of — ' ; 1. 
The bishop (James being president) \ 2. The apostles ; 3. 



138 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

The presbyters, as deliberates; 4. The brethren, giving 
force to the decree by a reception of it " (Bishop Wordsworth). 

One other observation claims a place. It should be 
noticed with what skill the account of this embassy is 
introduced and conducted. It serves a double purpose. 
It disposes for ever of the Judaising question. And, in 
accordance with the prime plan of the narrative, it also 
serves for a link in its prophetic chain. Of the score or 
more that would speak in such an assembly, besides 
Barnabas and Paul, only two are named ; and of the 
speeches of these only a tithe is produced. But these 
two were deemed pillars in the Church. And the passages 
selected from their speeches are such as serve emphatically 
the design of the report. Peter's speech had an allusion 
embracing the whole question of the acceptance of Gentiles. 
But the special step in advance is found in the quotation by 
James of a prophecy uttered by Amos. " After this I will 
return, and will build again the tabernacle of David," &c. 
" That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all 
the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, 
who doeth all these things " (ix. 11, 12). By the applica- 
tion of this prophecy to the case before them, the assembly 
set their seal to the work in which the servants of Christ 
were engaged in Syria and Asia Minor, in fulfilment of a 
charge primarily made to the very persons composing this 
assembly, but whose real meaning and extent they had been 
backward to understand. 

By the action taken upon this occasion, the apostles and 
brethren at Jerusalem remitted Barnabas and Paul to their 
work as apostles of the uncircumcisiori. Thus did that pro- 
phecy receive a fulfilment, " And He shall speak peace unto 
the heathen." And here was a beginning of that end, 
" And His (Messiah's) dominion shall be to the sea, and 
from the river even to the ends of the earth " (Zech. ix. 10). 



CHAPTER XV. 

LUKE'S LAST YEAR IN ANTIOCH. 

When the deputation returned from Jerusalem, Luke was 
still at Antioch. This is involved in his words, " So 
when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch " (xv. 30), 
He witnessed, therefore, what he relates concerning the 
subsequent proceedings here. A special call of the Church 
having been made, similar to that upon their return from 
their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas in an 
assembly of the Church related the circumstances of their 
embassy, and delivered the epistle of the apostles and 
elders at Jerusalem : upon the reading of which the As- 
sembly, Luke says, "rejoiced for the consolation" (xv. 31). 
How obviously is the eye-witness reflected in this note. 
Exultation is in the words. The writer welcomed the re- 
turn of his friends. A summary of the report of their 
successful mission he entered into his note-book, as he had 
done of their missionary tour. He also rejoiced in the 
visit to Antioch of the delegates who accompanied them. 
These he had probably known during his residence in 
Jerusalem. But to see them again, and upon such an occa- 
sion as this, was unspeakably pleasurable. It was also a 
triumphant moment for the Church at Antioch. The 
capacity of Christianity for universal diffusion had been 
upon its trial. The object of the mission had been gained. 
There was evidence, written and oral, of its success ; and 
the gratification was commensurate. His notice continues : 
" And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, 



140 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

exhorted the brethren with many words," and confirmed 
the terms of the letter, as they had been instructed to do, 
" by word of mouth." They reviewed its different clauses, 
each of them at some length, adding their personal testi- 
mony to the feelings of fraternal concord which the let- 
ter conveyed. The mention that Judas and Silas were 
prophets is made to impart weight to their testimony ; 
and it also bespeaks the writer's personal sympathy with 
them ; for Luke likewise was a prophet. His notice that 
" they tarried there a space " seems to divulge the happi- 
ness he had derived from their visit ; whilst every such 
opportunity of intercourse with the agents in the great 
work whose history was confided to his pen by the Holy 
Ghost, added to the interest of his narrative. Nor less in- 
dicative of personal fellowship and sympathy is the notice 
of the farewell given by the Church to these visitors : 
" They were let go in peace from the brethren to the apos- 
tles." The force of this description is only to be appre- 
ciated by those who, like these brethren, have the peace of 
God shed abroad in their hearts. It was a public and 
grateful act of courtesy. It embodied an acknowledgment 
of benefit conferred by the deputies, and of the grace with 
which they had fulfilled their mission. They were dis- 
missed with benedictions to the revered apostles and elders 
at Jerusalem. It would appear that Luke had enjoyed 
the pleasure of the society of these eminent brethren, and 
the Church their services, for some time. But although 
having received this formal dismissal, Silas did not return 
with Barsabas to Jerusalem. The words, " Notwithstand- 
ing, it pleased Silas to abide there still," are not found in 
some manuscripts. But whether they belong to the text 
or not, the words following imply that he remained in An- 
tioch : " Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch 
teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many 
others." Among the others engaged in edifying the Church 



LUKE'S LAST YEAR IN ANTIOCH. 141 

are to be recognised, besides Silas. Titus and Mark, with 
Luke himself. The many teachers and preachers found in 
Antioch was an evidence of the triumphs which the gospel 
had achieved in that city. Never again was this same 
company of athletes found together. The period ap- 
proached in which each of those named should receive, 
under the divine guidance, new appointments. " And 
some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again 
and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached 
the word of the Lord/' But this pious design was to be 
frustrated by a simple incident. And here again is ob- 
tained an illustration of the truthfulness of Luke's narra- 
tive. His love to both these men was like that of Jonathan 
to David, yet the occasion of their separation must be told, 
and told it is with rigid exactness. The natural affection 
of Barnabas led him to propose that Mark should again 
accompany them, as upon the occasion of their first mis- 
sionary journey. To this arrangement Paul objected, upon 
the prudential consideration that "Mark had withdrawn 
from the work at Pamphylia." "What a vivid glimpse of 
diverse character in these apostles does the historian here 
afford ! He had pronounced Barnabas " a good man," ex- 
pressive of his benevolent disposition. And here it is seen 
in his relation as an uncle. Paul's temperament admitted 
no compromise with the decision of his judgment : it was 
impatient with every obstacle to his sole purpose of fulfil- 
ling his Lord's commission. " And the contention was so 
sharp between them, that they departed asunder, the one 
from the other ; and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed 
unto Cyprus" (xv, 39). That Paul's objection to the wish 
of Barnabas was justifiable is never questioned. But justi- 
fiable also, as the sequel proved, was the resolve taken by 
Barnabas. Barnabas was better acquainted with the hope- 
fulness of Mark's character than was Paul, and he was a 
less rigid judge. And that Barnabas had formed a correct 



142 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

estimate of it is evident by Mark's subsequent perseverance 
in the labours of the ministry, as witnessed by his having 
become the companion of Peter, and likewise, at a future 
period, of Paul, who, in a letter to Timothy, bare this testi- 
mony of his usefulness : " Take Mark, and bring him with 
you, for he is profitable to me for the ministry (2 Tim. iv. 
11). So, when the uncle was deceased, those eminent 
apostles succeeded in an affectionate appreciation of the 
nephew. As both Barnabas and Paul were the servants of 
God, who appointed to each his sphere of ministry, so this 
dissension was overruled for the advantage of the great 
cause to which they were alike devoted. Many have since 
been the divisions which, in like manner, have served to 
promote the spread of the gospel. 

The relation of Barnabas to the Church of Christ pos- 
sesses a singular interest. In the ecclesiastical record by 
Luke, Barnabas has appeared pre-eminent in fulfilling 
Christ's charge to preach the gospel in " all the world," as 
distinguished from Palestine. He has been seen as intro- 
ducing to the Church at Jerusalem a convert that became 
the most energetic of any preacher of the gospel, and 
afterwards as conducting him to a ministry to Gentiles 
at Antioch. He has been seen associated with that 
preacher, and labouring with abundant fruitfulness in An- 
tioch, in Cyprus, in Pamphylia, in Pisidia, in Iconium, at 
Lystra; and also as uniting with him in securing for 
Gentile disciples liberty from the yoke of Jewish ritualism. 
How those services, along with his own association with 
him as a fellow-labourer at Antioch, had endeared Barnabas 
to Luke, the narrative of the latter attests ; grateful admi- 
ration of him being refulgent throughout the three chapters 
wherein the particulars of his ministry are related. By 
the absence of any future mention of Barnabas, it is again 
seen how strictly Luke adhered to the plan of his narra- 
tive. Not even his friendship for that apostle allured him. 



LUKE'S LAST YEAR IN ANTIOCH. 143 

By his separation from Paul, Barnabas deviated from the 
track of the gospel's chiefest course, upon which course 
Luke kept his eye, and regulated his history ; recording 
only circumstances which were either witnessed by himself 
or reported to him from the lips of the agents themselves. 

The regret felt at the termination of opportunities to 
proceed with notices of his friend's progress, may, in some 
measure, be conceived by the reader on reflection. A feel- 
ing of sadness is occasioned by the thought that nothing 
further is reported in the historian's page concerning a 
character so interesting, and one to whom every converted 
Gentile is deeply indebted. But, that Barnabas pursued 
his ministry with unabated devotion and success, there is 
found an indication in the reference made to him by his 
former coadjutor in the first Epistle to the Corinthians ix. 
6. This mention of him, whilst it shows that Barnabas was 
known in Greece, affords likewise a testimony of Paul's 
reverend remembrance of him. 

As Barnabas was at least twenty years older than Paul, 
the period of his future ministry must have been brief. It 
is related in martyrologies that he suffered death at Cyprus 
A.D. 54. A legend concerning him adds, that Mark buried 
him in a cave in that island, and that in the year 485 his 
bones were discovered therein. Portions of them are pre- 
tended to be still held in many ecclesiastical reliquaries. 
That the estimable character of Barnabas, and his eminent 
services, had left a very grateful impression upon the Churches 
indebted to his labours, is manifest from the advantage 
taken thereof to foist into publication an apocryphal epistle 
bearing his name. So soon were the Churches infested with 
forgeries ! 

Between the departure of Barnabas to Cyprus and that 
of Paul from Antioch there was a brief interval. And, 
therefore, the fifteenth chapter might have concluded with 
the thirty-ninth verse; verses 40 and 41 being made to 



1 44 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

commence the sixteenth chapter. And from this point the 
narrative might appropriately receive the title of 

" The Acts of the Apostle Paul." 

Henceforward this apostle is the sole commanding figure 
in Luke's pictures, but around which several interesting 
characters are occasionally grouped, inviting the attention 
of the reader. This portion of Luke's second treatise begins 
with the sentence, " And Paul chose Silas, and departed, 
being recommended by the Church to the grace of God " 
(xv. 40). From which it appears that the choice of Silas 
for his companion being intimated by the apostle to the 
Church, it was sanctioned by a valedictory benediction. 
Silas was in every way qualified for his new appointment. 
He was a Jew of the Hellenistic class. His relations with 
these parts were, it is probable, similar to those of Barnabas, 
and had determined the choice of him by the brethren at 
Jerusalem as one of their delegates. The same relations 
would also have their influence in inducing his resolution 
to abide at Antioch, instead of returning with Judas Bar- 
sabas to Jerusalem. An important qualification for Silas's 
companionship with Paul consisted in his having been, as 
a native of a colonial city, like himself a Boman citizen 
(Acts xvi. 37). It is highly probable that the liberty of 
action enjoyed by the teachers at Antioch was mainly 
attributable to all of them having possessed this privilege. 
It often served for a panoply in other places. Moreover, 
Silas possessed a sterling character. He came to Antioch 
recommended as "a chief man among the brethren at 
Jerusalem." He was, therefore, no novice. In years he 
might be only a little older than Paul. He was evi- 
dently of a courageous constitution. This is discovered by 
his promptitude in complying with Paul's election of him. 
He had in Jerusalem listened with emotion to the relations 
made to the assembly by Paul and Barnabas. The account 



LUKE'S LAST YEAR IN ANT IOC H. 145 

of their journeys, their adventures, and their successes, and 
the fact of their having " hazarded their lives for the name 
of Christ," brought him instantly into strongest sympathy 
with their persons and ministry. And Silas possessed, 
withal, the amiable qualification of a buoyant and cheerful 
temper. The prison cells at Philippi afterwards attested 
this. 

How apparent in this appointment is the hand of Pro- 
vidence ! Silas is sent on a mission to Antioch. Instead 
of returning with Judas Barsabas to Jerusalem, he remains. 
Paul requires a companion. He makes choice of Silas, who 
accepts the proposed ministry. And when the object and 
results of his ministry are considered, it will be concluded 
that every circumstance connected with his appointment to 
it was directed by the Divine Master. It is descending, 
but it may be quoted as a foil, that in Silas is presented 
another example of traditionary muddle. Like several 
others he bare a Greek name, which, upon occasions, was 
Latinised. He has consequently been split in two, and 
consecrated Silas, Bishop of Corinth, and also Silvanus, 
Bishop of Thessalonica ! 

From the persecution that drove Luke and his company 
to Antioch until this time was about ten years, or from A.D. 
41 to 51. Next to the seven years which preceded that 
persecution, and during which the fulfilling of Christ's 
charge had been confined to Palestine, these last ten years 
formed, strictly speaking, the most important of any period 
in the history of the Christian Church since its first organi- 
sation. The progressive power of the gospel had been more 
largely proved at Antioch than in Jerusalem. To the 
Jewish mind the notion of a crucified Redeemer was even 
more abhorrent than to the Gentile. The Jew was familiar 
with the expectation of a Messiah ; but having looked for 
Him under a widely different character than that in which 
He appeared, he stood in the attitude of vexatious dis- 

K 



UQ BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

appointment. The Gentile also entertained a hope of a 
Saviour ; but having only a dim hope, and the object of it 
being undefined, his prejudices were sooner overcome, in 
the feeling of the absolute need in which the universal world 
stood of a Kedeemer. 

In reviewing his residence at Antioch, Luke might well 
have rejoiced. He had here witnessed glorious evidence 
of that conclusion of the apostles and brethren at Jerusalem, 
" Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance 
unto life" (xi. 18). He had been honoured to be an agent 
in sowing the minute seed ; he had been permitted to stay 
and cherish the tender plant, and to witness the happy 
fruits of the culture bestowed by the servants of God with 
whom he had been united in this interesting and beneficent 
labour. Antioch had responded to the voice from Jerusalem. 
And now the world was responsive to the voice from An- 
tioch. 

Disinclined to interrupt the course of the narrative of 
events connected with Luke's residence at Antioch, the 
following specimen of modern criticism has been deferred. 
Dr Alford, at present an authority, writes in his " Prolego- 
mena to the Acts :" — " Whether Antioch may have been the 
place of Luke's own conversion, we know not; but a 
peculiar interest evidently hangs about this preaching at Antioch 
in the mind of the narrator, be he who he may!" In these 
words, a mystery is confessed. The expositor having 
approached a gate of the city, seems to discern the person 
of the writer of the Acts of the Apostles therein. Yet* 
when he comes to the text wherein Lucius is represented as 
engaged in a ministry in the Church at Antioch, he unhesi- 
tatingly declares — " There is no room to suppose him the same 
with Luke" Thus gravely is the gate shut against a solution 
of the acknowledged mystery. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 

Luke is still, it is to be supposed, in Antioch. No par 
ticular of his biography, it seems, can be touched, except in 
the form of an argument. The fogs of perverted tradition 
have hung so thickly upon his memory, that any attempt 
to set it in the light is regarded with jealousy by those who 
have committed themselves to the opaque views thence 
derived. With many the starting-point of an inquiry has 
been, "What saith tradition?" instead of, "What is to be 
deduced from Scripture ?" From this cause the particular 
now to be considered has remained clouded in mystery. 
No precise intimation of the time and place of the first 
publication of Luke's Gospel being found, the legends of 
the Latin Church have been by many writers followed, 
which assign its publication to the period of his residence 
in Rome — that is, to about A.D. 63. But here not only is 
the motive originating this representation to be suspected, 
persons and events being known often to be misplaced in 
order to swell the credit of that city in ecclesiastical history, 
but the representation is opposed by the claims of the East. 
Those claims rest on no slight foundation. All the early 
Greek copies of the Gospel were produced in the East. 
Upon the front or at the end of some of these copies, the 
scribe has intimated the date when it was judged that the 
Gospel was originally written. The same is likewise done 
upon early Syriac and Arabic versions of it. Some say it 
was published fifteen years, some twenty, and some twenty- 



148 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

two years after the Ascension. In some of the inscriptions 
a place is also assigned of its publication. In some, this is 
said to have been Asia Minor, or some province thereof is 
named ; in some, Macedonia ; and in some, more specifi- 
cally, Alexandria. Following these intimations, the ques- 
tion is plainly carried back to the East. But by the want 
of harmony in those statements, the student is driven to 
an examination of another class of evidence. He is led to 
inquire whether a solution of the problem may be obtained 
in pursuing the subject by considerations of probability and 
the coherence of events. The books of Luke and the 
epistles of his friend Paul, the apostle, are before him ; 
and the exercise is both pleasing and profitable. 

Among the considerations which will aid this course of 
inquiry are the following : — 

1. It will be observed that Luke spent about ten years 
at Antioch. This was the longest residence that he made 
at any one place after he left Cyrene>, The eight years he 
had spent in Palestine prepared him for the work that 
devolved upon him here. He was also prepared thereby 
for the task of composing his Gospel. And although at 
first his time would be occupied in aiding to found the 
Church, and afterwards in endeavours to extend its influ- 
ence and limits, yet, especially towards the latter years of 
his residence at Antioch, he may be supposed to have found 
leisure for writing, besides his notes of current events, or 
the Acts of the Apostles, his former treatise entitled his 
" Gospel." 

2. It must be supposed that, when the time arrived in 
which the record he had prepared should be required, its 
publication would not have been deferred. While the 
preaching of the gospel to Gentiles was confined principally 
to Antioch, the publication of the written record of the 
gospel would not be pressing. There were persons here, 
Luke being of the number, who occupied themselves in 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 149 

making oral relations of the incidents of our Saviour's life, 
and in furnishing to their audiences reports of his parables 
and discourses. But that a demand for a written gospel 
had arisen in other places at least is witnessed by facts. 
During his residence here, the first regular mission to the 
Gentiles had been successfully accomplished. A large field 
had hereby been opened. Many churches of believers had 
been gathered. Inquirers waited to be informed. It was 
impossible to supply all these with teachers competent to 
afford an oral account of the facts of the gospel sufficiently 
copious and exact. But Luke possessed the means of 
meeting the exigence ; and the return of the apostles to the 
scenes of their former labours, together with the require- 
ments of new places to be visited, offered a proper occasion 
for the issue of the desiderated document. Can it be thought, 
other considerations concurring, that the boon was with- 
held? 

3. Antioch offered conveniences for the publication of his 
Gospel unequalled by those of any place of Luke's subse- 
quent abode. To have published it in Eome — that is, the 
Greek original — is g quite inconsistent with probability. True, 
Greek books were much prized in Italy by the learned and 
by collectors of curious books, for these existed then as now. 
But all those books were imported. Most of the lighter 
class of Greek literature was obtained from Athens. Nei- 
ther were Greek scribes to be found in Rome by whom 
the Gospel could have been multiplied ; nor were the 
readers there for whom the original was designed and 
adapted. 

4. Some writers prefer to claim Csesarea for the place 
where it was written. Drs Conybeare and Howson, in 
their account of St Paul's imprisonment there, write : " A 
plausible conjecture fixes this period and place for the 
writing of Luke's Gospel under the superintendence of the 
apostle of the Gentiles." But invalidating this conjecture 



150 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

are the considerations that, for the two years which Luke 
spent in Csesarea, he had resided ten years in Antioch. 
Moreover, the identical objection stands here as against 
Kome with respect to the language of the place. Csesarea 
was essentially a Eoman colony, having been the residence 
of the Eoman governor and his court, with a large garrison 
of Italian soldiers, whilst the rest of the inhabitants were 
chiefly Jews. Whereas, differing from those cities, Antioch 
possessed a metropolitan character in relation to the eastern 
provinces of the empire, and especially with respect to the 
Greek-speaking peoples. And then, concerning the other 
particular of the conjecture. Was that which it insinuates 
the true situation of Luke with respect to the composition 
of his Gospel 1 Is it to be suspected that an evangelist was 
not as competent for the work of his own vocation as an 
apostle was for his ? Is it hereby pretended that Luke did 
not write as directly under the superintendence of the Holy 
Ghost as did Paul 1 

As a great seat of industry and commerce, books were 
included among the productions of Antioch. This city 
was likewise the chief seat of the Gentile branch of the 
Christian Church and missions ; and as practical copyists 
were here easily attainable, so the means of distributing 
the copies were ample. The precious gift had only to pass 
from the scribes into the hands of the Church, and those 
Christians who had shown how well they understood the 
obligation of spreading the gospel by missions would not 
fail, with similar alacrity, to undertake the dispersion of 
the written Word, "the sword of the Spirit." 

5. It is important to notice the claim which scribes of 
Alexandrine copies of Luke's Gospel have asserted for its 
original publication at Alexandria. That this refers to 
Alexandria in Egypt is frequently denied by critics, who 
affirm that it signifies Troas. But a demurrer to this 
criticism is, that although this city was originally named 



+ 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 151 

Alexandria Troas, its former appellation had been dropt by 
the Romans. In the time of the apostles it was known as 
Troas. Luke's habit of exactness would lead him to be 
careful to distinguish this city from the Alexandria with 
which he had formerly been acquainted, and also from all 
others, for there were no less than a dozen places of that 
name, according to the gazetteers ; and it is quite impro- 
bable that the original name should have been adopted by 
him so long after its disuse, or that the scribe having, in 
five previous instances, written Troas in the text, should 
name it Alexandria in the inscription. This remark ap- 
plies to the Greek copies ; and in agreement therewith is 
the inscription set before the ancient Syriac or Peshito 
copy, and also the Persian, made from the Syriac, which 
reads : " The Holy Gospel of Luke the Evangelist, which 
he uttered and preached at Great Alexandria." With this 
evidence accord the opinions of those learned critics, Grabe, 
Mill, and Wetstein, who each say that Luke's Gospel was 
published at Alexandria in Egypt. But how is this claim 
of Alexandria in Egypt to be reconciled with the foregoing 
considerations in behalf of Antioch ? The answer is easy. 
The Gospel may be said to have been published at Antioch 
and Alexandria simultaneously. It has been seen that 
Theophilus, to whom the Gospel is addressed, abode at 
Alexandria. A beautiful coincidence is found in this cir- 
cumstance ; for it is to be observed, when the Gospel was 
published, authors frequently sent their productions to 
some distinguished man, or prefixed his name to it, in 
order, by the dedication of a work to him, to testify his 
esteem, and also to enlist his influence. If he accepted the 
gift, he was considered bound to introduce it to the world 
as patronus libri. It was hence his part to provide for its 
publication by means of transcripts and to spread its fame. 
This usage was followed by Lucius the Cyrenian, in the 
dedication of his book to Theophilus of Alexandria. By 



152 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

this dedication Luke imposed the same obligation upon his 
friend, whose duty it became to multiply copies of it, and 
to distribute them among those for whose use it was parti- 
cularly composed; his object being the same as that expressed 
by the poet — ■ 

" My little book 
To one is sent ; 
But is for all designed." 

— Martial, Sat. vii. 96. 

It should be remembered that there is nothing fortuitous 
in Holy Scripture. No item is found there except for an 
important reason. That reason may have slipped from re- 
cognition, but it is sometimes recovered by study, and 
sometimes by accident. It was not enough, then, that 
merely as a personal friend of Luke's the name of Theo- 
philus should have been set in the front of the sacred nar- 
rative. Theophilus must have been a person not only in 
repute in the Gentile Churches, but also known by the 
leading members of them as a coadjutor in the work of 
evangelisation. By these deductions it appears that he was 
so. He is found in the roll of Christ's ministers, fulfilling 
His command to publish the gospel throughout the world. 
There is, moreover, a significance in Luke's mention of his 
name, in the circumstance that it tended to accredit the 
record to the African Churches, amongst whom Theophilus, 
as a magistrate, would be extensively known. And there 
was, likewise, a singular propriety in commending its publi- 
cation to a resident in a city where the business of literature 
was patronised and facilitated by its magistrates. 

It is impossible to refrain from expressing admiration at 
the providence which secured the combined action of these 
two friends in spreading the word of the gospel at points 
so remote from each other ; the churches of Syria, Asia 
Minor, and Europe on the one side, being supplied by Luke 
and his allies, and those of North Africa, on the other side, 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 153 

by Theophilus. How, therefore, early copies of the Gospel 
written here came to bear the signature of Alexandria, finds 
a solution irrespective of the obsolete Alexandria of the 
Troad. 

6. A confirmation of the truthful current of the foregoing 
deductions being sought, is at hand. Although, from the 
neglect of Luke's biography, the inconvenience has arisen of 
an overlooking, or contradicting, the allusions made to him 
in St Paul's epistles, yet a few writers have perceived some 
of them notwithstanding. In the First Epistle to the Thessa- 
lonians, it is written, " For yourselves know perfectly " — 
ye have exact and accurate knowledge thereof — " that the 
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief" (v. 2) : the allusion 
being to Luke xii. 39, 40. Bishop Wordsworth, having 
explained the apostle's words by the paraphrase above given, 
observes, "This could hardly be unless they had some 
written evangelical document with which they were 
familiar, such as a Gospel multiplied by means of copies, 
and read in religious assemblies." 

If this annotation be correct, a recognition of Luke's 
Gospel is found in the first of the epistles written by St Paul. 
No other Gospel than his had then reached the Greek 
Churches ; and so, in the possession of this document by 
the Thessalonians, there was witnessed a fruit of Luke's 
mission to Philippi, where he abode when that epistle was 
written. Again, the Second Epistle to the Corinthians was 
conveyed from Philippi by Titus and Luke. In this epistle 
the latter is described as " the brother whose praise is in 
(or by) the Gospel throughout all the Churches " (viii. 18). 
This notice of Luke was written about seven years after 
Luke had quitted Antioch. Had it been written a few 
years sooner, there had not been sufficient space for his 
having acquired the wide-spread fame which is here ex- 
pressed ; or had it been written some years later, it had not 
so well supported the present argument : for it might have 



154 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

been objected that his Gospel had been published at a later 
period, and consequently issued from another place than 
Antioch. 

7. With respect to the book itself. The process of 
writing was so tedious that authors were in the habit of 
dictating their thoughts to scribes skilled in the art. It 
cannot be known whether Luke's Gospel was originally 
written on papyrus or on the inner bark of certain trees, 
these having been the ordinary materials upon which books 
were written. Writing on separate folios or leaves, and 
binding them together, had been introduced by Julius 
Caesar, And probably Luke's two treatises were issued in 
this manner. But epistles were then always written on 
parchment, and kept in rolls. St Paul possessed both kinds 
of writings (2 Tim. iv. 13). Writings being composed of 
letters which were all capitals, could not be compressed into 
a portable form, such as modern types enable them to as- 
sume, so that books were seldom of a size smaller than what 
is termed quarto. From the first a large demand must have 
existed for copies of the Gospel. Obvious, therefore, was the 
propriety of sending the first transcript of it to Alexandria 
where the business of copying and supplying books was fol- 
lowed as are now the professions of printing and publishing 
in London and in Paris. 

8. A Christian is sometimes captiously asked to point to 
the originals or autographs of the writings of the New Testa- 
ment. Than this demand nothing can well be more unrea- 
sonable. Can an objector any better inform us of the 
existence of autographs of any of the classical or other 
writers contemporary with the evangelists and apostles ? It 
has been well explained — " Of the fate of the autographs 
of the apostles, or rather of their amanuenses, nothing cer- 
tain is known. These original copies would be much per- 
used in the different Christian communities ; and as the 
ancient papyrus was exceedingly frail, they would speedily 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 155 

fall into fragments : nor in those days, when materials for 
writing were scarce and dear, would a transcript be taken 
which was not absolutely necessary, or while the original 
could be had or was legible. In those days, also, of per- 
secution, the writings of the Christians were exposed to 
accidents peculiar to themselves " (" Palseoromaica," by Dr 
Black, p. 56). It might be imagined that by the invention 
of printing no difficulty had thereafter been found in the 
preservation of copies of the early editions of the Holy 
Scriptures. But what is the fact 1 Of the first edition, for 
instance, of the New Testament in English (Tyndale's, 1525), 
which was printed fourteen centuries after the original 
manuscripts were written, not a single copy exists ; only a 
fragment consisting of thirty-one leaves, which is shown as 
one of the rarities of the British Museum. And of the 
second edition of the same book, only two copies are now 
to be found ; both of them being imperfect. And to speak 
of another very popular book, published a hundred and 
fifty years later, namely, the "Pilgrim's Progress," 1668, 
only a single copy of the first part of it is known to sur- 
vive. No books, indeed, of which numerous copies were 
issued are more rare than early editions of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and books which, like them, have been much read 
and studied : for the simple reason that they were worn out 
by frequent use. 

9. With respect to the methods by which Luke's Gospel 
was put into circulation ; presuming that it had already been 
given to the Church at Antioch, a favourable opportunity 
was afforded for introducing it to other Churches by the 
missionary labours of Paul and Barnabas, of Silas, Timothy, 
Titus, and others. The Christian communities which they 
had already gathered would receive it from their hands 
with avidity. And its importance, as an auxiliary in 
spreading a knowlege of the facts upon which the faith of 
Christians was founded, being felt, copies would be re- 



156 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

quired wherever Churches were founded. Upon the elders 
of the several Churches it devolved to provide for the 
perusal of the precious document. It was necessary that 
access to it might be obtained by those in whom the 
preaching of the gospel had excited a desire for its perusal. 
By the expensiveness of books the custom was induced of 
affording an easy access to them by their possessors. In 
the mansions of Eoman citizens there was usually a room, 
called the tablinum, furnished with books, the walls being 
covered with tablets and other writings, and of which the 
owner was accustomed to afford the use to his friends. 
Houses in the East were provided with an apartment which 
answered the same purpose. They were built like castles, 
being entered by a gate conducting to a square or court, 
around which stood the building, generally of two stories. 
In the upper story was a principal room, called in the 
Gospels the guest-chamber, having an entrance from the 
court by a flight of stairs ; and although there might be 
other chambers upon the same floor, this was distinguished 
by the name of the upper-room, and was at once the 
domestic sanctuary and the saloon for the entertainment of 
visitors. The same arrangement still exists. Mr Lane, in 
describing a house at Cairo, says concerning this apart- 
ment : " Sometimes the walls are ornamented with inscrip- 
tions from the Koran, &c, in Arabic, which are written in 
an embellished style, and enclosed in glazed frames " 
("Modern Egyptians," vol. i.) 

What, therefore, the tablinum was to the Romans, and 
the synagogue to the Jews, the upper-room was to the early 
Christians; and therein not only did they preach, pray, and 
" break bread," but convenience was afforded in them for 
the publication of the Christian Scriptures, for the public 
reading of these, and also individually by those of the 
congregation who did not possess copies of them ; the 
books, as usual in such apartments, being placed upon 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 157 

shelves, and the parchments (epistles) either in cylindrical 
boxes, or unrolled and suspended against the walls in the 
manner that maps and pictures are at present. This, then, 
was the sanctuary or the Church in the house. Some such 
a sanctuary had Mary the mother of Mark at Jerusalem ; 
so had Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus, Philemon at 
Colosse, Xymphas at Laodicea, G-aius at Corinth ; and 
so had the apostle Paul in his own hired house in 
Rome. 

A glance downwards will show how traces of this 
method of providing for the reading of the Holy Scriptures 
are found throughout successive centuries. Tertullian, 
A.D. 200, speaks of it in his " Apology," where he says that 
the apostolical epistles were read in the churches ; and he 
particularly refers to their being still found in the Church 
at Philippi, a Church which at first and for several 
years had been under Luke's charge. Perhaps no Church 
before about the beginning of the third century pos- 
sessed the whole of the books of the Xew Testament. 
Some had but one or other of the gospels ; some only 
certain of the epistles, according to vicinage to the places 
where was the greatest facility for obtaining them. And 
what with casualties by fire, the oft sacking of towns, and 
the eagerness with which the Scriptures of the Chr^uans 
were sought for the purpose of their destruction oy Pagans 
and Jews, it could not be expected that they would be 
otherwise than scarce. Xo wonder, therefore, that we read 
of some confessors having taken pains to commit some 
or the whole of several books of the Xew Testament to 
memory. In the year 325 it transpired at the Council of 
Xictea, that a number less than three hundred of the Chris- 
tian Scriptures were only known of by the members of that 
Council ; several of whom not being able to write their 
names, were little competent to aid in remedying the 
deplorable deficiency ; nor, indeed, was that scarcity ever 



158 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

obviated so long as books could only be multiplied by 
manuscript. 

After the political establishment of Christianity, the pro- 
vision for reading the Scriptures was transferred from the 
upper-room to buildings called basilikas and churches. 
About the year 400 Pantinus had inscribed over an apart- 
ment attached to the church at Nola two lines in Latin, 
having this signification : 

" If any one is piously disposed to meditate 
in God's law, here he may sit and employ 
himself in reading the Holy Books." 

The corruptions of what medievalists call the "Holy 
Catholic Church " rapidly progressed. The writings of the 
prophets and apostles were superseded. In the place of 
these, worshippers were invited to admire bones and other 
relics said to be those of martyrs and saints, and the walls 
were desecrated with pictures. Before a picture of Jesus 
the worshipper was instructed to say, "Lord help us;" 
before a picture of His mother, "Pray to thy Son for us ; " 
before a picture of a martyr, " Pray for us." In these 
terms did Pope Gregory III. write to the Emperor Leo, 
a.d. 727. Literature was still in churches, but instead 
of the narratives of the Evangelists, it consisted of the 
dreamy legends of hermits and monks. 

Shortly before the great Reformation there was scarcely 
a Latin Testament in any cathedral church in England, 
thougn the Latin was the authorised language for the 
Scriptures and service-books. Instead of the Holy Gospels, 
the apocryphal legend called the " Gospel of Nicodemus " 
was affixed to a pillar in the cathedral at Canterbury. 
And, as an illustration of this kind of perversion within 
observation, the visitor to Windsor Castle may still read 
the following inscription in St George's Chapel : — 



LUKE'S GOSPEL PUBLISHED. 159 

'•Who leyde thys booke here? The 
Reuerend ffader in God, Richard Beau- 
champ, BISSCHOP OF THYS DYOCESSE OF 

Sarysbury. And wherfor % to thys en- 
tent, THAT PREESTIS AND MINISTERS OF 

Goddis Churche may here have the 
ocoupacion thereof, seyying therein 
theyr divyne servyse, and for all othir 
that lystyn to sey thereby ther devo- 

CYON." 

This book was a breviary, which was fastened by a chain 
to a ring in the wall, but it has long since been removed, 
and replaced by a copy of the Bible in English. By 
Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth Bibles were ordered 
to be placed in all churches in like manner. Of the 
custom of exhibiting the words of Holy Scripture by the 
primitive Christians in their places of worship, the texts 
inscribed upon panels in earlier foreign Protestant churches, 
and likewise the tablets suspended in our own churches 
exhibiting the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and 
the Apostles' Creed, are obvious relics. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LUKE AT TROAS. 

According to certain modern authorities on biblical sub- 
jects, Luke's biography commences here. They affect to 
know nothing concerning him until he is found using the 
personal pronoun " we " (xvi. 10). One of these authorities 
says, " The first ray of historical light falls on the Evan- 
gelist when he joins St Paul at Troas " (" Smith's large 
Diet, of the Bible "). Consequently, to those who adopt 
these guides, all that has been advanced in the preceding 
pages of this biography will be regarded as so much romance. 
There is surely something mysterious in this repudiating 
the history of the Evangelist before this period. Can it be 
conceived that to an inquirer no trace of Luke's personal 
history should be discernible until he came to Troas, not- 
withstanding that he had been a disciple nearly twenty 
years, that he had published his Gospel four or five years 
before, and that more than half the matter of his Acts 
of the Apostles had transpired 1 It could not well be. 
And, by a not surprising inconsistency, some of these same 
authorities confess to apprehend that Luke may have wit- 
nessed some things which he relates in chapters preceding 
this period. For instance, Drs Conybeare and Howson, 
although strongly declaring against the identity of Lucius 
and Luke (vol. i. 129), yet admit, " It is highly probable 
that they (Paul and Luke) had already met and laboured 
together at Antioch" (vol. i. 261). It cannot be pleaded that 
there is any difference in the character of Luke's composi- 



LUKE AT TROAS. 161 

tion when the article " WE " comes to be used. There is no 
formal conclusion of what precedes it, and no mark of a 
section newly commenced. No explanation accompanies 
the change. But it occurs as familiarly as if this recogni- 
tion of the writer had been apparent throughout, whilst the 
biographical harmony of the parts remains unbroken. To 
the question, then, that arises, " Why does Luke, contrary 
to his previous custom, now write in the first person?" 
it is answered : The information which the use of the 
word " WE " implies now became necessary. The fact of his 
having notified his presence at Antioch, and the reason 
thereof, will be remembered. And now, his presence else- 
where is intimated, and in a manner the most simple. As 
long as he resided in that city, what he wrote as a witness 
there, and what concerning occurrences in other places 
from the report of others, is easily distinguishable. But it 
would be otherwise upon his departure from thence, unless 
some intimation was afforded of the occasions when he 
was present in the scenes which he proceeds to de- 
scribe. 

As Luke never returned to Antioch, his departure thence 
formed a new era in his life ; a fact also indicated by the 
circumstance which has just been explained. He had bid 
farewell to his associates there, in contemplation of enter- 
ing upon some other important sphere of ministry. And it 
may be thought to be certain that these, together with the 
whole Church, united in a prayerful commendation of their 
friend to God, as in other instances of the departure from 
thence of brethren to scenes of labour. The reason for his 
visit to Troas must be sought in a consideration of his 
character and employment as a prophet divinely intrusted 
with a historical development of the fulfilment of Christ's 
charge. The Apostle Paul, whose ministry he now chiefly 
had in view, had compassed a large part of the continent of 
Syria and Asia, and his absence from Antioch became, there- 
in 



1 62 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

fore, so much extended, that if the narrative was to continue 
to partake the marks of the writer's being a sharer in and a 
witness of the enterprises, as well as a reporter from the 
lips of the Apostle and his companions, it would be neces- 
sary for his purpose to follow him. Added to this reason, 
he doubtless also purposed to extend hereby the circulation 
of his Gospel, which he had recently published at Antioch. 
Certainly, a journey or voyage of 600 miles had not been 
undertaken without strong inducements by one having 
attained the age of sixty-six. But above all this, as he 
had been divinely directed to Antioch, so was he now to 
Troas. He had been favoured to see much of the prophetic 
charge of Christ fulfilled, first in Palestine, and then in 
Syria ; and he was destined to witness and to record a still 
wider fulfilment of it. 

By coming to Troas, Luke passed from the greatest city 
in the east to the greatest city in the west of the conti- 
nent upon which he stood. He was now on classic 
ground, a district of fabulous and historical fame. Troas 
was built by order of Alexander the Great, about B.C. 320; 
and its rapid decline dated from about A.D. 339, in conse- 
quence of the establishment of Constantinople as the metro- 
polis of the eastern dominions of the Koman Emperor. 
Although it took the name of the district, it was some dis- 
tance from the site of the ancient city of Troy. Conveni- 
ent for commerce, it was erected on the coast of the ^Egean 
Sea, and near to the mouth of the Hellespont, having in its 
front a natural basin for its harbour. In honour of the 
hero by whose command it was built, it was called Alexan- 
dria Troas. But having been constituted by the Emperor 
Augustus a Koman colony, its name was changed to 
Augusta Troas. Afterwards the double designation was 
dropped, and it bore in the time of Luke simply the name 
of Troas. Coins having each of these inscriptions are to 
be seen in numismatic cabinets. The name of Troas had 



LUKE AT TROAS. 163 

not become obsolete in the fourteenth century ; but by th<* 
unclassic Turk it is now called Eski Stamboul. 

The city was seated on a hill of several miles in extent, 
having an aspect sloping from the summit towards the sea. 
Behind the hill lay a deep valley, from which again arose 
the chain of hills which constitute Mount Ida. The other 
sides of the hill terminate in extensive plains. When Luke 
beheld it, the prospect of the city from the shore presented 
a noble sight. Behind him was the natural harbour, built 
around with massive stones, and ornamented with columns 
of marble ; whilst there extended from the shore a pier 
whose limit and strength are still indicated by the rippling 
of the waves in passing over it. In the plat forming the 
foreground of the city was laid out the stadium or race- 
course, from whence, arising in easy ascent for two miles, 
appeared the numerous dwellings, interspersed by the public 
buildings, whose magnificent character is gathered from the 
ruins of those of them which have retained their individu- 
ality. The principal of these consist of a theatre, an odeum 
or music-hall, two temples ; and, crowning all, being 
distant nearly three miles from the shore, the Palace of 
Priam (erroneously so called), being, according to the best 
authorities, a gymnasium, bearing a resemblance to the 
baths of Diocletian at Rome. Three expansive arches are 
seen in its front, ornamented with mouldings of white 
marble, the centre arch being approached by a noble flight 
of steps. 

Several large pedestals, without the statues that had sur- 
mounted them, are found in different places. Upon one of 
these, seen by Chandler, was an inscription to "Caius Rufus, 
flamen (or high priest), of the divine Julius and of the 
divine Augustus." Other remains, some of a stupendous 
size, consist of columns (monoliths) almost equal to that 
called Cleopatra's Needle in Egypt, marble soroi (sarco- 
phagi), and fragments of architecture, which lay scattered 



164 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

for miles both within and beyond the limits of the city, the 
port being literally choked with them. Dr E. D. Clarke 
observes : " Long before the extinction of the Greek empire, 
the magnificent buildings of this city began to contribute 
the monuments of its ancient splendour towards the pub- 
lic structures of Constantinople ; and at present there is 
scarcely a mosque in the country that does not bear testi- 
mony of its dilapidation by some costly token of jasper, 
marble, porphyry, or granite, derived from this wealthy 
magazine." He adds, " After all that has been removed, 
it is wonderful so much should remain." 

The walls, thick and solid, which encircled the city, are 
still standing, but are covered with earth up to within a 
few feet of their height, and present the appearance of a 
boundary to a forest or to a neglected park ; for such is 
the character of the whole site upon which the city stood. 
" Covered," says Sir C. Fellows, " by a forest of oaks, it 
is impossible to see its ruins collectively." 

Works of public utility were on a scale of corresponding 
magnitude. A valley, comprehended within the walls, and 
partly artificial, was divided in its whole length by a large 
common sewer, into which the waters of the city were dis- 
charged, and whose outlet, for size and workmanship, was 
not inferior to the great work of the kind constructed by 
the Tarquins at Rome. Also, an aqueduct of massive stone 
structure, which conveyed water to the city, is still seen 
crossing the country on the side next the Hellespont, ex- 
tending several miles. 

By the prescribed limits of Luke's narrative, curiosity is 
again disappointed. At what period he arrived in this 
great city ; and how long he had been here before he was 
joined by his friends, is not even to be guessed. He was 
an Evangelist, and therefore, whatever time he had spent 
here had been employed in endeavours to spread the 
knowledge of the gospel. As there are no incidents given 



LUKE AT TROAS. 165 

concerning the introduction of the gospel into Troas, it 
may be supposed that it had been already brought hither 
by persons who had come from some of the provinces 
which had been visited by the apostles. Consequently, 
Luke had found in this " city set upon a hill " the accom- 
modation of a house, where, in an upper room, two or three 
or more were accustomed to meet together in the name of 
Jesus. Only the name of one Christian resident in Troas 
— that of Carpus — is mentioned in the New Testament 
(2 Tim. iv. 13). Paul had lodged with him ; but this was 
several years afterwards, and when Troas had become an 
important rendezvous for the mission on this side of Asia 
Minor, as Antioch was on the other side of it. 

How refreshing in this distant place must it have been 
for the Evangelist to welcome the Apostle and Silas. Ac- 
companying them was Timothy, who, during the Apostle's 
former visit to Lystra had heard the tidings of the gospel ; 
and had also heard concerning the preacher's having been 
stoned and cast out of the city for dead ; or, perchance, 
had witnessed the scene, even as Paul himself had wit- 
nessed the stoning of Stephen, but with this difference, 
that Timothy's heart was affected with sorrow. Upon his 
present journey, and his revisiting Lystra, the Apostle found 
this youth " a disciple well reported by the brethren " 
(Acts xvii.) The same report was also given of him at 
Iconium ; for he had already become an evangelist by the 
laying on of the hands of the Presbytery (1 Tim. iv. 14). 
Being now introduced to Luke, the latter had the pleasure 
to welcome him as the Apostle's " son in the gospel, and 
fellow-labourer." 

But soon was Luke's gratification subdued. The myste- 
rious relation which he received from the lips of his 
friends w~as of a character new and bewildering. The pro- 
gress of Paul and Silas through the places visited by the 
former on his first journey had been cheering and pros- 



166 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

perous. By their visitation of them "the Churches were estab- 
lished, and increased in numbers daily" (xvi. 5). From 
those parts they had proceeded through the midland pro- 
vinces of Phrygia and Galatia. But now came an arrest. 
They were forbidden by the Holy Ghost, by whom they 
had been sent forth, to preach the Word in Asia, or to go 
into Bithynia, the place which they next proposed to 
visit. The Asia here mentioned was a portion of what is 
now called Asia Minor, about a fourth of it, which was con- 
stituted a distinct province by the Eomans as Asia Propria. 
It included Mysia, Lydia, Ionia, and Caria, with a part of 
Phrygia. The divine injunction which Paul and his com- 
pany had received, expressed doubtless in the usual way — 
that is, by a prophetic utterance of one of the party — 
brought them prematurely to Troas. The intimation so 
received amounted to a prohibition to preach the gospel in 
the Troad, or in any district on this side of the continent. 
Hence a dilemma. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

luke's voyage to Europe. 

In coming to Troas, with the primary intention to maintain 
his correspondence with Paul and his party, Luke followed 
the track the gospel was destined to pursue. And as the 
angels that witnessed the marvel of the first day's creation 
could not have foreseen what would succeed, no more could 
those engaged in this mission, having witnessed the first 
success of their testimony, have conceived the course and 
extent of its future progress. It is true that prophecies 
with which, as a student of Holy Scripture, Luke was 
familiar, spake glowingly of the increase of Messiah's 
dominion. But prophecies have never been clearly com- 
prehended until illustrated by their fulfilment. Luke 
might think that what he had witnessed of their illustra- 
tion was privilege enough for the present generation. And 
he might have concluded that there was work enough for 
his companions during their lives, and for more labourers, 
and for a long time to come, in the vast field of the con- 
tinent upon which he then stood. In accomplishing their 
ministry, the Apostle and his coadjutors had reached only a 
portion of this great field. Many important places of Asia 
Minor remained to be visited ; and these, after the first 
announcement of the gospel in them, had to be revisited 
for the confirmation of the converts, and the consolidation 
of the Churches raised ; as in the case of some of those 
places included in this, Paul's second journey. To be 
arrested, therefore, in their course by the "Spirit of Jesus' 7 



168 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

(for so read some of the most ancient MSS.), whose charge 
they were in the act of fulfilling, would throw them into 
the utmost perplexity. The presence of his venerable 
friend, at this conjuncture, must have proved a source of 
comfort to the Apostle. His counsel and their mutual 
prayers would tend to sooth the conflict that arose in the 
minds of the missionaries. Genius had sealed the district 
in which this band of Christ's ministers were now delayed 
with an imperishable fame. No visitor could avoid reflec- 
tions upon the scenes of the great song of Troy. That song 
is a tale of wars. From those reflections Luke would turn 
to the perusal of odes suggesting thoughts more suited to 
his mood. In these he read, concerning a greater chief 
than the greatest that imparted interest to those scenes — 

" He shall speak peace unto the heathen, 
And His dominion shall be from sea to sea, 
And from the river 
To the ends of the earth." 

— ZecJt. ix. 10. 

By this light a scene lay before him, transcending that 
enchanted by the magic of Homer. From the face of the 
hill-built city, musing in an upper room, his eyes fell upon 
the expansive sea, studded with islands, whilst far on the 
right flowed the Hellespont, mingling its waters with the 
^Egean. A spectator of this scene records : " The beauty 
of the evening in this country surpasses all description. 
The sky now glowed with rich tints of the setting sun, 
which, skirting the western horizon, raised, as it were, up 
to our view the distant summits of the European moun- 
tains " (Chandler). The land which Luke saw afar off was 
destined to become a scene of the triumphs of the Prince 
of Peace, whose servant he was. But how soon it should 
become so, he was as yet unconscious. 

This crisis in Luke's history was as interesting as it was 
ambiguous, when lo ! there came a messenger from the very 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO EUROPE. 169 

scene upon which his eye gazed and his mind had mused. 
" A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a 
man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into 
Macedonia and help us ! " Soon the clouds vanished. The 
mystery of the prohibition to proceed in their projected 
excursions throughout Asia Minor was explained. A new 
direction was to be taken by the evangelical band. And 
here it is that, in speaking of the effect of this vision upon 
the judgment and conduct of the Apostle and his two other 
companions, Luke expressly includes also its effect upon 
himself by writing, " And after he had seen the vision, im- 
mediately WE endeavoured to- go into Macedonia, assuredly 
gathering that the Lord had called US for to preach the 
gospel unto them " (xvi. 10). The unusual mode of this 
intimation shows that an extension of their mission to the 
European continent had not only not been contemplated, 
but that a fear of outstepping the limit of what they 
deemed, for the present at least, the extent of their com- 
mission, had to be overcome in the mind, particularly of 
him to whom the vision appeared. The opening of the 
door to the Gentiles, of which this is the third special 
instance wherein Jews received a commission to bring 
Gentiles into the fold, had upon each occasion to be 
authenticated by a special revelation. Whereas the prompt 
interpretation given to the vision by the Gentile prophet 
shows how little such an apprehension had possessed his 
mind. 

If any evidence was wanting that Luke, reticent though 
he was concerning himself — being only once before men- 
tioned — yet took an active part in the Christian ministry, 
it is supplied here. Speaking concerning this passage of 
Luke's history, it is said by Charles Taylor, and with 
proper emphasis : "I am not pleased with the inferiority 
ascribed to Luke by writers who make him merely an 
attendant on St Paul in his travels. His language is not 



170 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

consistent with that opinion. He says : ' A vision appeared 
to Paul, and immediately we endeavoured to go into Mace- 
donia ; ' and that ' The Lord had called US to preach the 
gospel in Macedonia.' He does not say, nor does he mean, 
Paul determined, and we obeyed ; no, he esteems himself 
equally entitled to give his opinion, and equally called to 
the expedition." And with this expostulation, it may be 
added, agrees the entire contexture of Luke's conduct. He 
had been a believer in Christ before Paul's conversion ; — ere 
Paul came to Antioch Luke had established, along with his 
companions, a Church, whose growing interest had occasioned 
Paul to be invited hither ; — he was one of the three directed 
to separate Paul for the ministry which he now pursued ; — 
and he was found at this station before Paul, and not accom- 
panying or following him. All this is contradictory to the 
oft-echoed statements that Luke was Paul's assistant or 
disciple. 

From this moment Troas took an important place in the 
annals of the apostolical missions. It became another 
rendezvous, from whence the agents thereof proceeded in 
the new direction of their labours. Here they might at 
once obtain and communicate intelligence concerning the 
work of God on either continent. It is spoken of as such 
a station, Acts xx. 5,6. It is twice so referred to in Paul's 
epistles. And of the Church established here, with its upper 
room, an anecdote transpires in Acts xx. 7-12. 

The associate-authors, in whose Life of St Paul the 
Apostle's travels are so carefully traced, have given so little 
attention to the writer of the book from whence all that 
relates to that Apostle (except the notices contained in his 
his own correspondence) is derived, that, like some other 
modern writers, they only begin to recognise him at Troas. 
Depicting the situation of Paul at this place, they relate : 
" Among those who were busy about the shipping in the 
harbour, were the newly-arrived travellers, Paul, Silas, 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO EUROPE. 171 

Timothy, and that new companion, Luke, the beloved phy- 
sician " (Conybeare and Howson, chap, viii.) 

By the absence of particulars wished to be known con- 
cerning Luke's sojourn at Troas, further than what has been 
noticed, observation is again directed to the brevity of the 
notations in parts of his narrative. This brevity often 
challenges the exercise of the imagination, and it justifies 
any amplification that may be made by legitimate inference 
— that is, harmoniously with the time, the place, and the 
characters of the text, and of its correspondences. The 
intimate relationship of every Christian heart with the topics 
of the narrative warrants this indulgence. Here, for instance, 
the departure of the company is summed up in the words, 
" Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight 
course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis " 
(xvi. 11). No ship is mentioned, and no embarkation. 
Both are left to be understood. Yet never did ship leave 
that beautiful harbour bearing such an important freight. 
Compared with this freight, that of "Caesar and his fortunes" 
dwindles into insignificance. In that little company pacing 
the deck, what an interesting group was seen ! all chosen 
vessels to carry the blessings of salvation to the quarter of 
the globe destined most of all eventually to illustrate the 
divine power that attended the preaching thereof. 

There walked Luke, who had been called by divine grace, 
having, by an acquaintance with the literature of true re- 
ligion, had his mind prepared for the light and bliss of the 
gospel. His place in this new expedition is consistent with 
his having been one of the company by whom the gospel 
had been first preached to the heathen. Among the first that 
brought the gospel into Asia, he is now privileged, also, to be 
among those who first bear its tidings to Europe. Having 
enriched the Churches of the former by the publication of 
his narrative of the life of Jesus, he now conveys copies of 
it to aid in spreading a knowledge of Him in the latter. 



1 7 2 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

In close converse with this venerable man was Paul, who, 
in the divine foreknowledge, had been separated for this 
service from his mother's womb, and who had already proved 
his armour. His own previous rebellion against Christ, and 
persecution of His saints, ever present in his remembrance, 
induced an energy in his speech and actions which bespake 
the intensity of the zeal with which he evermore sought to 
fulfil the charge of Him whom he now gloried to serve. 

Near to these, and joining them in conversation, was 
cheerful Silas, younger than Luke, but older than Paul, 
for he had been a prophet and " a chief man among the 
brethren " in Jerusalem when the latter had accomplished 
his first missionary tour. Free from the bondage of Jeru- 
salem-Judaism, and possessing the Eoman franchise, the 
sympathies of Silas, sanctified by love divine, were unre- 
strained to people or place ; whilst of his fitness for 
partnership in this enterprise, the best evidence is afforded 
in his presence here by the choice of the Apostle. 

There, too, was youthful Timothy, half Gentile, half Jew, 
and mother-taught, the adopted son of the Apostle, eyeing 
the three with affectionate interest, and listening, as became 
his intelligence, to the discourse of his seniors. Having had 
no past experiences beyond the vicinage of home, his situa- 
tion, in all its aspects, had for him the interest of novelty. 

" In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, 
An isle renowned."* 

Glancing at this object, and steering northward, the 
island of Lemnos was passed, then the island of Imbros ; 
then arriving before the lofty Samothracia, the ship was 
moored until the morning. Sailing thence a distance of sixty 
miles, they passed the island of Thasos, which lays nearly 
opposite Neapolis \ for the -^Egean is a sea of islands. At 

* Est in conspectu Tenedos notissjima fama insula. — Virgil ii. 21, 22. 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO EUROPE. 173 

length they approached their desired haven. The wind 
having been favourable, they had not been driven out of 
the direct course. And now, with more than the curiosity 
of travellers who for the first time look upon foreign scenes, 
with holy aspirations and subdued wills, these Christian 
pioneers gazed from the ship's side upon the land to which 
they had been invited, the voice still lingering in the im- 
agination, " Come over and help us ! " 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 

The First Part 

Greece was divided by the Eomans into the two provinces 
of Macedonia in the north, and Achaia in the south. ISTea- 
polis lay between the river Nessus, which divided Thrace 
and Macedonia, and the river Strymon, both of which flowed 
into a bay of the iEgean Sea. It was a port of some im- 
portance ; but the activity imparted by commerce has 
vanished, and its name has been changed by the Turks into 
Cavalla. A recent traveller relates : " The aspect of the 
town is still striking, standing principally on a projecting 
mass of rock, which rises abruptly from the sea. On the 
summit stands the fortress, with its round and square 
towers. A strong wall, apparently of Saracenic construc- 
tion, surrounds the town. A short distance in the back- 
ground, a fine aqueduct of Eoman work, in good preserva- 
tion, connects Cavalla with the neighbouring mountains. 
The appearance of this range of mountains is extremely 
wild and barren ; masses of granite, partly overgrown with 
low shrubs, with here and there a stunted tree ; the Via 
EgnoMa (a Eoman road), in tolerable preservation, still 
used, sweeping round the bay, and disappearing among the 
rocks and glens, impress the mind with a feeling, that 
much in that stern landscape is unchanged since the 
Apostle of the Gentiles commenced his ascent of those 
bleak mountains on his way to Philippi " (M. A. Walker, 
"Through Macedonia to the Albanian Lakes," pp. 11, 12). 



LUKE TN PHILIP PL 175 

The distance from the port to Philippi is about ten miles. 
In travelling that road the missionaries crossed the scene 
of another great conflict, one within the ken of then recent 
history. On the plains of Philippi were fought the battles 
between Roman republicans and imperialists. Brutus, the 
conspirator against Caesar, after the assassination of the 
latter, retired to Athens, where he beguiled himself with 
literature, whilst also he prepared for an expected assault 
upon him by Marcus Antonius, who had persuaded the 
people to avenge the death of Caesar. Upon the march of 
this avenger with Octavianus (Augustus), Brutus and Cassius 
prepared their armies for the encounter in a plain near 
Philippi. Here, as it is related by Plutarch, one night, 
when, overcome by watching, Brutus was reading alone in 
his tent by a dim light at a late hour, his army around him 
being wrapped in sleep and silence, he thought he perceived 
something enter his tent, and saw a spectre stand silent 
by his side. " What art thou 1 " he inquired. " Art thou a 
god or a man, and what is thy business with me 1 " The 
spectre answered, " I am thy evil genius, Brutus. Thou 
wilt see me at Philippi." To which Brutus calmly replied, 
" I will meet thee there." This apparition is represented 
by Shakspeare as " Caesar's ghost." The battle ensued. 
It was fiercely contested, and ended in the defeat of the 
republicans. Thereupon Cassius fell upon his own sword, 
receiving for his eulogy by Brutus, upon being informed 
thereof, " He was the last of the Romans." A second battle 
near the same spot ensued. In this conflict Brutus had 
obtained a partial advantage, but perceiving himself sur- 
rounded by a detachment of his enemies' soldiers, and pre- 
ferring death to being made a prisoner, after the example 
of his friend, he threw himself upon the point of his sword. 
Philippi was situated in a plain, having a mount, where- 
upon was erected its acropolis or fortress. Beside the city 
flowed the Gangas, or Gangites, a river which, with other 



1 76 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

streams, fertilise the neighbourhood. By Augustus, and in 
commemoration of his victory near it, it was constituted a 
colony of the Roman empire ; and at the period of the visit 
of this company it was a flourishing and important place. 
It is no longer a city. Its beauty has long since perished. 
Only a single ruin of any magnitude is found to memorialise 
it; other ruins, scattered in confusion, are covered with 
the streams, which, uncurbed by industry, overwhelm the 
plain. 

Luke's position in his narrative is now incontestably 
ascertained, and also the reason for the personal discovery 
of himself is apparent. In coming to Europe, he followed 
the progressive advance made in the fulfilment of Christ's 
charge by the most energetic and interprising of all those 
who had received it. The plan of his narrative required 
that he should be within the sphere of Paul's ministry, to 
whose history it is henceforth confined. It was therefore 
expedient, upon the Apostle's passage to another continent, 
to reveal the fact of his own companionship with him, that 
he might preserve his claim to authenticity as a witness of 
his progress, or as receiving intelligence from the Apostle 
himself. And besides this reason, it was proper, as in the 
case of the ordination of Barnabas and Saul at Antioch, to 
record who were the persons appointed to this memorable 
embassy. 

Luke was now in another climate, and in the midst of 
different associations than those at Antioch. Yet the 
change could not fail to be pleasurable to a colonist who 
had never before visited the country from which his fathers 
emigrated. Whilst brevity and brightness characterise his 
sketches of the incidents of the mission, the interest is 
heightened by the assured knowledge of Luke's personal 
share in them. In reviewing these divine sketches, there 
is observed — 

1. A suspense. This seems to be indicated by the words, 



L UKE IN PHILIP PL 1 7 7 

" And we were in the city abiding certain days " (xvi. 12). 
Having arrived, probably, early in the week, some days were 
spent by the missionaries in reconnoitring their new field 
of labour. In this interim, perhaps, no friendly door was 
opened to them. Nor did they find any welcome corre- 
sponding with the invitation that had directed their steps 
hither. On their part, they made no announcement of 
their errand ; but they modestly waited a discovery of the 
Master's directing hand. 

2. A place of ivorship visited. " And on the Sabbath we 
went out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont 
to be made." The company repaired to the only place in 
the neighbourhood in which Jehovah was worshipped. 
More than one stream flowed in the neighbourhood. This 
was a minor one. It was a retired spot, removed from the 
heathenish associations of the city. Some writers say it 
was a grove. But it was not so. Groves were character- 
istic of idol worship, in continuance of the serpent's place 
in Eden. The places wherein Jews met for worship were 
usually tabernacles, or dwellings of some kind, indicating 
the social character of true worship ; God herein conde- 
scending to " dwell with man." It is still a rule in towns 
wherein are found ten families of Jews, for these to form a 
synagogue. From the absence of any description of the 
place " out of the city," it is to be supposed that it was but 
a simple apartment. Everywhere the synagogue offered 
a refuge for those that discerned the abomination of idolatry. 
At Thessalonica there was found a great multitude of Greek 
proselytes, belonging to the superior class of the community 
(Acts xvii. 4). Perhaps the prayers of this congregation 
had often been in harmony with the request of the Mace- 
donian of the vision at Troas. 

3. There is described the first announcement of the gospel 
in Europe by the missionaries. " And we sat down and 
spake unto the women that resorted thither." The appear- 

M 



178 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUXE. 

arice of these four strangers could not fail to have excited 
the notice of the pious worshippers. But curiosity would 
soon turn to surprise, when these undertook the conduct of 
the worship. The expression, " We spake," shows that the 
writer was a speaker on the occasion. It has been re- 
marked — " It would seem that at that time there were no 
Jewish men in the city ; for Paul and his companions, at 
that rural place, only spake to women who were assembled 
there " (Lechler and Gerok).* If men had formed part of 
the congregation, Luke had not said " we ;" for he, as a Gen- 
tile, was precluded from publicly discoursing in a synagogue. 
Consistently with what had been his special study, and 
with his acquired character, it cannot be doubted that 
Luke's address consisted of some particulars of his Gospel. 
And for those in the congregation who, as God's elect, had 
often spoken one to another on the subject of the " Desire 
of all nations," and had te waited for the consolation," how 
profound would be the attention given to the intelligence 
that fell from his lips ! Was the report brought to their 
ears by this stranger credible 1 would be the prompt inquiry. 
But before this inquiry found expression, Paul, taking up 
the subject, proceeded to shed upon the narrative which had 
been given, an exposition such as may be conceived by a 
reference to his teaching in his epistles. With the friendly 
and personal character of Paul's epistles the lover of Holy 
Scripture is familiar. It is easy, therefore, to imagine the 
manner in which his arguments were conveyed. In con- 
firmation of Luke's statements, he would revert to the 
explorations made by the Evangelist to obtain these facts 
from eye-witnesses of Christ's life and ministry. He would 
glance at the circumstance, that what had been related to 
them had been gathered by the loving industry of a prose- 
lyte, having gone from Africa to Jerusalem, where he had 
* Nulli viri sed solse fceminae ad orationem convenisse. — Fromond, 
Comment., 1654. 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 179 

heard and embraced the glad tidings of the gospel. He 
would speak of his own conversion, and of the visions he 
had had of Christ, and how he had been appointed by him 
to be his apostle to Gentiles. He would tell of the call of 
himself and companions to Macedonia. And turning to 
Silas and Timothy, he might invite them to speak concern- 
ing their own conversion, and of their toils and consolations 
in the service of Christ. 

4. The first convert. "And a certain woman named 
Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who 
worshipped God, heard; whose heart the Lord opened, 
that she attended unto the things which were spoken of 
Paul." No wonder, after the statements made, and the 
application of them by the Apostle, that such an incident 
should have followed. Here the accurate pen is observable 
in the mention of the place from which Lydia came in Asia 
Minor, and of her occupation here ; for Thyatira was famed 
for the excellence of its purple dye, a colour much esteemed 
by Orientals. Luke's expression, " Whose heart the Lord 
opened," corresponds with the words of the Apostle, after- 
wards addressed to the Philippians, "For unto you it is given 
to believe in Christ" (i. 29); and again, " For it is God who 
worketh in you" (ii. 13). So the first convert in Greece 
was obtained without a miracle. These devout women 
were conversant with the Old Testament Scriptures. They 
waited for the promised Messiah. Prepared for the truth, 
they perceived its beauty and adaptation to their aspirations. 
From the promptitude of Lydia's conversion, it is not too 
much to suppose that others of the congregation, upon re- 
flection, and under the effects of subsequent teaching, be- 
came believers and disciples likewise. 

5. The first Christian baptism in Europe. " And when she 
was baptized and her household." Baptism is a reasonable 
service. As "a water of separation," baptism was re- 
ceived by proselytes, being Gentiles, upon their admission to 



180 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the privilege of Jewish worship. This baptism Lydia had 
already received. The baptism of John was administered 
as a pledge to be taken of repentance and the forsaking of 
sins, and also of a belief and expectance of the Messiah, 
whose approaching advent that prophet announced. In the 
teaching of the Apostle Paul, baptism was symbolised as 
a going down with Christ unto death, leaving therein all 
the sins of the previous life, and the rising up out of the 
water as a resurrection with Christ to a new and spiritual 
life (1 Cor. x. 2 ; Eom. vi. 3, 4). Faith accepts the cove- 
nant, and baptism is a seal thereof. Lydia now submitted 
to this second baptism, probably administered by Silas. 
With respect to the baptism of her household, it is to be 
concluded that she had no husband, or he had been a sony 
one, to be undistinguished in the group. It is also to be 
concluded that she was a matron. If she was of the age 
between forty and fifty, which is probable, her children, if 
her household comprised any, would be of an age to com- 
prehend and to sympathise with their mother's views. And 
as she was a " devout woman," there can be as little hesi- 
tation in supposing that her household had formed part of 
the congregation by the river-side ; that they had atten- 
tively listened to the facts and arguments by which she had 
been persuaded to become a Christian ; and that they 
too had been savingly influenced by them. All this, being 
consistent with probability, may be reasonably accepted. 
For again, it must be remembered, that it is Luke's plan to 
give only the principal features of the case, leaving what is 
subordinate to be conceived by the reader. 

6. Lydia's hospitality. " She besought us, saying, If ye 
have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my 
house and abide." The terms in which this invitation 
was given affords a beautiful evidence of the humble and 
grateful feelings of the "opened heart." "If ye have 
found me faithful to the Lord." How sweetly do these 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 181 

words read ! how they breathe humility ! Here was a 
disciple, fit companion for the saintly penitent that washed 
the Saviour's feet with her tears. Could Lydia's appeal, 
"Come into my house and abide," be rejected? — the 
matronly character of the hostess being fixed by the note, 
"And she constrained us." Here, then, was an asylum 
for the prophets. In this first convert in Europe was 
found another example added to the number of hospi- 
table matrons whose memorials are conserved in Holy 
Scripture. Here was another heroic woman, not deterred 
from entertaining the servants of the Lord by the adverse 
circumstances by and by appearing. Here was another 
sister of consolation, like the Mary who had her house on 
Zion, where abode Peter and other apostles. Here Paul 
found another mother, like the wife of Simon Niger at 
Antioch. Under this roof was for the moment gathered 
the first Christian household, the fruit of the invitation 
of Lydia's guests to Macedonia. It was the exclamation 
of Libanius, the pagan teacher of philosophy at Antioch, 
" Ye gods, what women have the Christians ! " 

More stirring scenes ensue ; and Luke now embodies in 
his pages sketches of novel interest, all proposed to illus- 
trate the royalty of Christ in the progressive spread of His 
gospel. What had occurred since the arrival of the evan- 
gelistic company in Philippi was marked by the repose of 
social intercourse, begun in the place of prayer, and con- 
tinued in the domestic circle of the first convert's house. 
At appointed times they continued to resort to the former. 
And all had gone on smoothly there, and with benefit to 
those who had the happiness to partake the influence that 
attended inspired instruction. But the tidings brought 
were not to be confined to that assembly, however much 
its numbers might increase by the interest which the pre- 
ence of the missionaries created. Their message was to 
each pagans likewise. The people of the city must be 



182 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

awakened. Hitherto no signs of welcome had met them 
answerable to the pathetic invitation that brought them 
here. But at length, and from an unexpected quarter, 
public attention is aroused. 

6. There is depicted an interruption of the missionaries by 
a Pythoness. " And it came to pass that as we went to 
prayer, a certain damsel possessed of a python spirit (nvsijfta 
wvQuvog), met us, who brought her masters much gain by 
uttering oracles/' The same followed Paul and us, and 
cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high 
God, who announce unto us the way of salvation " (xvi. 
16, 17). 

By the rendering of the English version, "possessed with 
a spirit of divination" the precision of the Greek text being 
neglected, a very principal feature of its interest is missed. 
The Greek mythology wore two aspects, one suited to the 
intelligent and meditative, and another to the vulgar and 
licentious. But the devil worked in both. And all their 
" gods many," however sublimated some of them were by 
art, and set before the eye in fascinating forms of poetry 
and sculpture, only veiled an imposture, and enticed to 
satanic orgies. 

The subject of serpent-worship (Ophialatria) is treated 
by the learned Jacob Bryant in his " System of Mytho- 
logy," and since in a volume entitled "The Worship of the 
Serpent traced throughout the World," by J. B. Deane. 

This worship formed one of the earliest elements of idolatry. 
It existed in Chaldea. In Egypt, the serpent was worshipped 
under the names Canoph and Ob, or Oub, whence is derived the 
name of the tapering column, an obelisk. It was common 
to Babylonia and Syria. In the narrative concerning the 
woman of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 7), she is called Oub (a 
Pythoness), whereby it appears that this oracle of the 
Canaanites had not been suppressed. From the East, the 
worship of the serpent spread into Greece, and, by a 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 183 

favourite legend of that country, Python is represented as 
an immense serpent produced from the mud left on the 
earth after the deluge of Deucalion. It is said to have 
lived in the caves of Parnassus, where it was sought and 
slain by Apollo, whose victory was celebrated by the 
Pythian games. Nevertheless, serpent-worship survived, 
and appeared in nearly every mystery of the Greek and 
Roman Pantheons. The pictures of Medusa, with a head 
covered with writhing serpents instead of hair, represent 
one feature of the fable. In some of the rites by which 
pythonic mysteries were celebrated, as in those of Bacchus, 
women appeared in that manner, wearing live snakes in 
their hair; and holding snakes in their hands, they ran 
about, and with frantic gesticulations and yells, screamed 
the name, Eva ! Eva ! By this poor daughter of hapless 
Eve, strange as it appears, Avas uttered the first public 
announcement of the character and object of the mission to 
Macedonia, in which Luke bare a part. This she did, 
when she cried, saying, " These men are the servants of the 
Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation." 
It consists with the power of God to extort a testimony 
from the enemy. So Balaam, instead of the curses desired 
from him, and suggested by the demon of his worship, 
pronounced blessings upon Israel. And so the man pos- 
sessed by a devil cried, in the presence of Jesus, " I 
know Thee whom Thou art, the Holy One of God " (Luke 
iv. 34). But this damsel did more; she cried to be eman- 
cipated. The devil within her could not hinder her recog- 
nition of the power by which alone her liberation would be 
effected. She cried, moreover, as a representative person. 
The spectral suppliant at Troas had said, " Come over to 
Macedonia and help us !" And in her case was symbolised, 
in one important form, the condition of need for which 
help was required— the condition of those who, being 
without God, are led captive by the devil at his will, which 



184 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

all Python worshippers were. The announcement by the 
possessed damsel was public, and it was repeated on several 
successive days. Hereby attention was thoroughly drawn 
to the missionaries. Her words were regarded by the 
people as oracular. To these they were couched in mys- 
tery; for what knew the idolators concerning the Most 
High God, or concerning the salvation of which she spake 1 
or what, indeed, did she herself know concerning them 1 

7. There is described, The exorcism of the demon by Paul's 
invocation of the name of JESUS. Still the principal figure 
of the narrative stands foremost; so strictly does Luke 
maintain the integrity of his plan. He had just written, 
" The same followed Paul and us;" now he writes, "PAUL, 
being grieved " — that is, at the cries and persistency of the 
possessed one ; and being in a situation similar to that in 
which He whose name he was about to invoke once stood — 
turned, and said to the spirit, "I command thee, IN the 
name of JESUS CHEIST, to come out of her." The 
faith which prompted this authoritative word was an- 
swered. Power accompanied it. "And the spirit came 
out of her the same hour." Thus at Philippi came off the 
first conflict with the gods of fable in Greece ; and, in the 
words of Milton, "the fen-born serpent was slain by a 
pure beam of God's Word." * This is the first time that 
the missionaries were confronted by the idolatry of 
Europe ; and the promptness, beyond all the fabulous prow- 
ess of Apollo, with which the "servant of the Most High 
God" expelled the "python spirit," whilst it fulfilled the 
oracular words that had resounded through the streets 
of Philippi, struck dismay into the supporters of super- 
stition. 

8. The enemy's retaliation. " When they saw that the 
hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, 

* In a tract printed in 1641, or twenty-six years before the publica- 
tion of "Paradise Lost." 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 185 

and drew them into the market-place to the rulers, and 
brought them before the magistrates." By " her masters " 
is suggested that the damsel had belonged to an idolatrous 
establishment of some sort. The loss of " their gains " is 
all their grief. Idolatry is becoming bankrupt, whilst 
the damsel, by her emancipation, gains all ; for it must be 
hoped that it was perfected by her divine adoption. Lydia 
was competent to become her instructor concerning the 
further import of the word " salvation." 

Paul and Silas were brought, evidently with violence, to 
the market-place, where a mob followed, to abet, by their 
clamour, the applicants for reprisals. In the market-place 
was the forum, where sat the magistrates, or prcetors, as 
Philippi was a Roman colony. The charge was preferred 
in the words, "These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble 
our city." These two, out of the company of four, were 
known to be Jews by their physiognomy and appearance. 
They both wore flowing beards, after the manner of Jews 
in all countries. Whereas Luke, being a Greco-Roman, 
wore his beard trimmed short, as is seen in the busts and 
medals of Romans of the period ; whilst Timothy's youth 
and costume left him undistinguished. 

The charge was manifestly false in respect of disturbing 
the city. The accused had conducted themselves with 
exemplary modesty. They had gone out of the city to 
exercise their worship, and the word spoken to the demon 
had been unaccompanied by any mark of ostentation. 
Moreover, an obvious benefit had been conferred by the 
cure of the patient, and the injury sustained by her masters 
was an accident of the case which had no remedy by law. 
Nor does this, their real grievance, seem to have been 
urged at all ; but the course taken was to excite popular 
feeling against them, " being Jews" which, notwithstanding 
the smallness of the number of those in Philippi, and their 
unobtrusiveness, it was not difficult to do. Jews were 



186 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

everywhere in disfavour, partly because their religion was 
testimony against idolatry — thus Pliny the Elder charges 
them with a "contempt of the gods" — and partly because 
of their impatience of the Eoman government, manifested 
on frequent occasions by their resistance to civil authority. 
Thus Cicero, in his oration for Flaccus, calls them "our 
enemies," and further says concerning them, " That nation 
has shown by arms its feeling towards our supremacy." 
And so here advantage is taken of the prejudice in a second 
clause, which sets forth, "And they teach customs which 
are not lawful for us to observe, being Romans." Perhaps 
this clause was suggested and added to the charge, from a 
knowledge that the reigning Emperor, Claudius, had ban- 
ished all Jews from Rome, a circumstance which happened 
about this time. And as a colony of the empire was apt 
to regard proceedings at the capital as proper precedents, 
the magistrates at Philippi would be disposed to decide the 
case according to the wishes of the accusers and their 
friends the mob. 

9. The treatment of Paul and Silas by the magistrates. — 
"And the multitude rose up together against them; and 
the magistrates rent off the clothes of Paul and Silas, and 
commanded them to be beat;" that is, by officers called 
lictors ; and having been " beaten with many stripes, they 
were committed to prison, with a charge to the jailor to 
keep them safely." A suspicion seems to lurk under the 
command given to the jailor that the magistrates were not 
quite at ease concerning the possibility of an exercise, by 
the prisoners, of a power that might set the judgment of 
the court at defiance, but to which contingency they were 
unwilling to make an allusion. The real occasion of the 
prisoners having been dragged to the forum was known 
to every one concerned in the case; and, therefore, it is 
impossible to say how much the mysteriousness thereof 
prompted this excess of caution. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 

The Second Part. 

Where, at this crisis of the mission to Macedonia, was 
Luke, who has described the scenes and incidents just 
reviewed with such divine vividness? He had probably 
witnessed the proceedings against his companions until they 
were conducted away to prison. Afterwards, accompanied 
by Timothy, he returned to the house of their hospitable 
hostess. The company gathered there consisted now of 
the Evangelist and his young companion, with Lydia and 
members of her household, being also disciples, and pro- 
bably a few sympathising friends, who had obtained a 
knowledge of what had happened to the missionaries. 
Luke sets down no note of his reflections upon the sad 
occasion, nor yet concerning what were the feelings and 
discourse hereupon of the company. The object that occu- 
pied his pen was absent. No doubt the inexperienced 
converts would be ready to utter expressions of dismay, 
both with respect to the condition of Paul and Silas, and 
also for the course of the gospel at Philippi, which they 
would regard as hereby checked. But their sobbings would 
have become hushed when Luke, with dignified composure, 
informed them concerning the case of the imprisonment of 
Peter at Jerusalem, and what had been the conduct there- 
upon of his friends in the house of Mary. And thereafter, 
having advised the adoption of the cdurse pursued upon 
that occasion, the night would be spent in prayer. To 



188 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

describe the manner in which the exercise was conducted 
on such an occasion and by such suppliants, may not be 
attempted. It is left to be imagined. 

That true watch-night was succeeded by a morning of 
painful suspense. Now was first known by the converts at 
Philippi, in its deep meaning, that " fellowship in the 
gospel " of which the Apostle afterwards spake so gratefully 
in the front of his epistle to them. But soon these clouds 
should disperse : " Weeping may endure for a night, but 
joy cometh in the morning." Answer to importunate 
prayer was not to be confined to the disciples in Jerusalem. 
For anon another coincidence with Peter's case followed. 
Before the hour of noon the beloved friends, whom the 
company thought to be immured in prison, stepped across 
the threshold. In an instant all was changed. The inter- 
view was reviving. Pleasurable greetings ensued. By 
Luke and Timothy, their companions would be welcomed 
as given back to them by their Divine Master. By Lydia 
their reappearance was hailed like a deliverance from a 
wreck, whilst the presence in her family of more than one 
joyous Khoda would impart heightened animation to the 
scene. 

After a short interval for repose, " Paul and Silas related 
to the company what the Lord had done with them and for 
them, as Peter had done after his release from prison." * 
Brief as had been the period of their separation from the 
company, it was thronged with incidents the relation of 
which fell upon the ears of the new disciples as beyond 
measure marvellous. Agreeably with his plan, it was from 
the Eeport now made that Luke framed his narrative of 
the prison experience of Paul and Silas at Philippi, and of 
their deliverance. In this narrative, therefore, the reader 
has the gratification to be informed of those incidents as 
from their own lips. 

* Lorini, Comment, in Acta Apost., fol. 1605. 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 189 

1 . There was reported the prison experience of Paul and Silas. 
The night had been spent in a very different manner than 
their friends had imagined. The jailor fulfilled the com- 
mand of the magistrates to the utmost of his means. They 
were in a deplorable situation. But they did not lose their 
self-possession. There was no whispering with bated breath 
concerning their discomfort. They were again arrested in 
their progress ; but not by a divine monition, as in 
Mysia. At midnight they prayed and sung praises. Their 
Master had forewarned them what they should endure 
in fulfilling His charge, and had promised His presence 
should be with them to the end of the world. Hence their 
strong confidence. Such confidence Peter possessed when 
in prison, and he slept. Such confidence Paul and Silas 
possessed, and they prayed in hymns, that is, their prayers 
were sung aloud in the words of psalms suitable to their 
condition. Herein the cheerful temper of Silas was illus- 
rated, and its advantage felt. The notice that the singing 
was heard by the other prisoners is not set down without 
some signification. The prisoners heard notes, not of songs 
of hardened bravado, but strains of devout import, which, 
accompanied by the immediately succeeding solemnity, 
might have left upon them a salutary impression. Perhaps 
some of them afterwards became inquirers concerning the 
" way of salvation." 

2. Their deliverance by an earthquake. " Suddenly there was 
a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison 
were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened." 
In this phenomenon Paul and Silas simply discerned a 
summons for their deliverance. And besides the usual 
effects of an earthquake, the Report sets forth the miracle 
of the loosing of every one's bands. 

3. The jailor's conduct. He is startled out of a sleep which 
had probably been disturbed by dreams of the mysterious 
exclamations of the damsel whose dispossession of the 



190 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

demon had brought Paul and Silas under his charge, and 
having still ringing in his ears the peremptory order which 
he had received concerning them. There was the man's 
dread of consequences to himself had the prisoners escaped. 
There is his conduct upon being assured from the lips of 
Paul that they were all safe. There is seen how the 
thoughts of his heart are now revealed, and how instinc- 
tively he regards Paul and Silas as " servants of the Most 
High God ;" how he inquires, as for life, concerning his own 
salvation ; how the heart of this man, of roughest occupa- 
tion, was opened ; how he makes all the reparation in his 
power for the wounds which had been inflicted upon them; 
how, forgetting- his fears, he himself brings them out of 
prison ; how he conducts them to his own residence ; how 
he sets meat before them ; how he listens with wonder and 
gratitude to the brief teaching of Paul answering his 
inquiry of " What must I do to be saved 1 " And here it 
may be observed, that by the question itself, and also by 
the answer to it, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved, and thy house," it is evident that he 
had been informed of the language of the damsel when 
following the Apostle and his companions, and that he was 
aware of the terms of the invocation by which the dispos- 
session had been effected. 

4. The jailors household. The reader may fancy how the 
members of the jailor's family hastened their attentions ; 
how they hearkened, with sympathising interest, to the 
doctrine brought to their ears by their remarkable guests ; 
how all was new to them, and how all that was said was 
felt to be suitable to their moral wants. A happy event 
for the jailor had been the custody of these servants of 
Christ. Accepting their message, it is related, "he 
rejoiced, believing in God with all his house" (ver. 18); 
and thereupon "was baptized, he and all his straightway" 
(ver. 17). So that here, in one of the last places in the 



LUKE IN PHILIPPI. 191 

city where such a result would be expected, was added 
another household to the fellowship of the saints. 

5. The effect of the earthquake beyond the prison. The earth- 
quake had shaken the whole city, and the magistrates were 
the first to connect it with the men whom the day before 
they had committed to prison. The apprehensions were 
realised which led them to give stringency to their charge 
to the jailor concerning Paul and Silas. Such was their 
conviction of the relation between these and the pheno- 
menon, and so great was their alarm lest another shock, 
still more portentous, should follow, that they send their 
officers to deliver a message, commanding the jailor to " let 
those men go." And there is thereupon the counter-mes- 
sage of Paul and Silas, wherein they declare their Eoman 
citizenship. They had not pleaded the possession of this 
privilege to avoid suffering; but now they desire the 
magistrates, as a testimony of the injustice of their con- 
duct towards them, to come themselves and escort them 
into the city. "And they came, and besought them, and 
brought them out." Here, therefore, officers of the " strong 
man armed " were reduced to a parley with the ministers 
of the stronger. Moreover, this public act, subsequent 
upon the earthquake, amounted to a new and grave adver- 
tisement of the mission of the latter to Macedonia. 

To his account of the incident which had been related to 
the company by Paul and Silas, Luke adds, " And when 
they had seen the brethren, they comforted them." Besides 
what was otherwise proposed for this purpose, great would 
be the comfort which the brethren derived from the assur- 
ance which the Report gave them of their Master's presence 
with His servants. Moreover, " having seen before their 
own eyes the examples of the Apostle's boldness in the 
faith, of his devotion to the Lord, of his triumph and 
enthusiasm for His cause, of his rejoicing amid all his 
trials, of the wonderful dispensation by which he had 



192 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

been delivered, the faith of the Christians had been pecu- 
liarly confirmed and strengthened" (Neander on Philip- 
pians, p. 3). 

So the object of the mission suffered no hindrance by 
the casualty; but, in language like that afterwards addressed 
to the Philippians by the Apostle from Eome, they could 
say concerning it," The things which happened unto us have 
fallen out rather for the furtherance of the gospel" (i. 12). 

6. The departure of Paul and Silas from Philippi. The 
happiness of this reunion was of short duration. For, 
upon descending from the Acropolis, where it is to be sup- 
posed both the forum and the prison were situated, the 
magistrates, haunted with dread of the presence of Paul 
and Silas, " requested them to depart out of the city." 
With considerate generosity, they yielded to the solicita- 
tion ; and after the visit to the house of Lydia which has 
been described, they departed, and travelled to Thessa- 
lonica. But their departure was not premature. There 
was a great work before the Apostle. It was not fit that 
he should abide at Philippi, as he did at Antioch after his 
first visit to that city. The request of the magistrates, 
and his own generous compliance therewith, may be re- 
garded, therefore, as having been directed by the Divine 
Master to speed His servants' progress. Not until six 
years afterwards did Paul visit this city again. By the 
departure of his two friends, Luke was left for the present 
with young Timothy for a colleague. It is often repre- 
sented that Luke accompanied Paul on his missionary 
journeys. But Luke did not itinerate. He had resided 
more than nine years at Antioch, and in Philippi he re- 
mained other six years. And his continuance here is, 
equally with the departure of his friends, to be regarded 
as of divine overruling. At this point his biography 
again loses the advantage of his pen. No more anecdotes 
relating to his residence here are found, whereby to en- 



L UKE IN PHILIPPI. 193 

liven the page. Yet something may be deduced concern- 
ing this period of his history from sundry considerations. 
His position at Philippi, although he was a Eoman citizen, 
was somewhat perilous. At Antioch he had been shielded 
by the multitude of sects existing and permitted there, 
and of which Christianity was taken to be one. At Phil- 
ippi all was intolerance ; and it had been seen by the in- 
habitants, at the very outset of their acquaintance with 
the Christians, that their doctrines were subversive of their 
idols. That opposition to the Christians was continued, 
and that, with his flock, Luke endured persecution from 
the idolators, is attested by those words in Paul's epistle to 
them : " And in nothing terrified by your adversaries ; for 
unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to 
believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake " (i. 28, 29). 
The persecution, which is thus dignified as a benefit to 
themselves, turned likewise to be a benefit to their cause, 
by keeping public attention upon them, and so bringing 
the more thoughtful to repair to the assemblies of the 
Christians to learn what was there taught concerning the 
Most High God and concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
invocation of whose name before them had been attended 
with a power above that of their demons. 

Upon the departure of his two friends to Thessalonica, 
Luke had been left with Timothy for his companion for a 
brief season. This was a happy providence for this young 
minister. As a student of divine knowledge, an opportu- 
nity was hereby afforded to him to become fully instructed 
from the lips of this learned Evangelist in those facts 
which constituted the basis of the doctrines taught and 
preached by the Apostle who had recently chosen him to 
be his assistant. Timothy joined Paul at Berea (xvii. 14). 

That Luke had a divinely-appointed ministry in Philippi, 
appears from his own observation : " Assuredly gathering 
that the Lord had called US to preach the gospel to them " 

N 



194 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

(Acts xvi. 10). That his ministerial character is recog- 
nised by Paul is seen in his Epistle to Philemon, where he 
is called " my fellow-labourer " (ver. 24). And that he had 
been claimed by the Holy Ghost for His minister, the evi- 
dence appears in his having been commanded, with other 
prophets, to separate Paul and Barnabas to the apostleship 
to Gentiles. And how he delighted to recognise the pre- 
sence of the Lord the Spirit is witnessed in every page of 
his apostolical history. So Luke in Philippi was the first 
JEpiscopus, or Christian bishop, in Europe. The particulars 
of his labours during his residence here are not revealed. 
But the character of them may be inferred. A person of 
Luke's intelligence, and with a mind fraught with the in- 
formation obtained in the schools of Cyrene and Alex- 
andria, and afterwards by his experiences in Palestine and 
Syria, would soon attract the esteem of persons loving 
knowledge, and especially of those who sought the highest 
kind of knowledge, that which inaketh wise unto salva- 
tion. 

Agreeing with what had been his studies, Luke's method 
of public preaching would have been historical. This 
method (the preaching from a historical platform) is now 
the rarest of any, although the best calculated to promote 
faith ; and as it is, also, the most interesting method of 
teaching, if more followed, it might tend to check the 
brain-softening evil of religious novel-reading. In the 
historical department, he stood on solid ground. A copy 
of his Gospel laying before him, he would expound its 
facts by reference to the Old Testament prophets, confirm- 
ing the several particulars of the narrative by an account 
of the witnesses from whom he had received them. It 
cannot be doubted that the religious services conducted 
by Luke were of the most simple character, correspond- 
ing with his writings. He did not invite the curiosity of 
the mere seeker after novelties. "His style," remarks 



LUKE IN PHI LIP PI. 195 

Bishop Home, " is singularly animated, affectionate, and 
pleasing." 

Luke's social relations in Philippi are also easily inferred. 
Here, at the very beginning of the divine cause in the city, 
were Christian households, to which rapidly must have been 
added others. In these, the reign of love was fostered, 
whereby there would have been repeated scenes such as 
Luke had beheld in Palestine, and he had himself promoted 
in Antioch. Soon would the benefactor of those house- 
holds be established in their grateful veneration, and his 
visits be hailed in their domestic circles. Ah ! how would 
he whose feelings were so deeply in sympathy with the in- 
nocence and simplicity of children, as his pictures thereof 
testify, have loved to visit "the happy home," to converse 
in holy fellowship with the host and hostess, and to catch 
an inspiration from the cheerfulness of the striplings — 
the hope of the world — himself blessing all, and blessed 
by all ! 

And then, beside his pastoral ministry in Philippi, Luke 
would have engaged in his special occupations in the province 
of sacred literature. His situation in this city was con- 
venient for his purpose. It was favourable for obtaining 
information concerning the progresses of St Paul, necessary 
for the continuance of his notes for his book of the Acts. 
In this frontier city he stood as upon a watch-tower, being 
not far distant from Asia Minor on one hand, and having 
the cities of Greece before him on the other, both having 
become the extensive scenes of that Apostle's labours. 

Alike favourable was his present situation for his object 
of supplying copies of his Gospel to the several Churches 
gathered in Macedonia. Dr Macknight has remarked, 
" Here we may suppose Luke employed these six years in 
composing and making copies of his Gospel, that he may 
have sent to the Churches in these parts." But that his 
Gospel had already been composed at Antioch has been 



196 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

argued in a previous chapter of this biography. And in- 
deed, the Word of truth must have been largely distributed 
along with the oral teaching, which he probably likewise 
delivered during circuits taken in Macedonia, where such 
a nourishing condition of the Churches came to exist as 
that which was happily witnessed. Luke had come hither 
at the first that he might follow the progress of the gospel, 
and. either as a witness thereof, or as being in close corre- 
spondence with the chief agent herein, he might continue 
his record. 

His notes of events, although excessively brief in some 
places, yet, like so many lights set at chosen stations, direct 
and guarantee the sure path of the traveller ; whilst the 
epistles of St Paul, confirming their integrity, serve to in- 
terest and to cheer by their correlative notices. 



CHAPTER XXL 

LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 

Not until an interval of six years after the events just 
narrated does any notice of Luke again -occur. Those 
years, it has been seen, were spent in a ministry at 
Philippi, and in visitations of the infant Churches in Mace- 
donia. During those years Paul accomplished a great work 
in planting Churches in Greece, and thereafter in extending 
the triumphs of the gospel in Proconsular Asia ; particulars 
of which were obtained from time to time from eye-witnesses 
by Luke, and incorporated in his narrative testimony, having 
this appropriate conclusion : " So mightily grew the Word 
of the Lord, and prevailed" (Acts xix. 20). 

At length, after two years' residence at Ephesus, Paul's 
ministry there drew towards a close ; the first intimation 
thereof having been given in a letter (the first) to the 
Corinthians. In that letter he requested that they would 
make a weekly collection in behalf of the poor saints in 
Judea, and added a notice of his intention to pass the 
ensuing winter at Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 1-6). With this 
intention Luke had been aware, for he writes : " After 
those things were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when 
he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to 
Jerusalem" (Acts xix. 21). 

And now the current of the narrative approaches towards 
Luke's own sphere. Messengers arrive at Philippi from 
the Apostle, who are thus announced : " So he sent into 
Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy 



198 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

and Erastus ; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season " 
(ver. 21, 22). These having been engaged in collecting 
funds in Asia, for the purpose mentioned in the letter to 
the Corinthians, are now sent to complete the collections 
made for the same purpose in Macedonia. 

Paul's ministry at Ephesus having concluded in a blaze 
which would tend to excite attention to his doctrines, and 
to the Church he had founded there, he left that city, 
and, in fulfilment of his plan, he turned his steps towards 
Greece. At Troas, according to a previous arrangement, 
he ought to have found Titus returned from Corinth. His 
absence caused the Apostle a double disappointment, for he 
looked anxiously for tidings of the manner in which his 
expostulatory letter to the Corinthians had been received, 
and to be informed what fruit it had borne. Titus had 
gone to Corinth expressly to observe all this, as also, by his 
ministry there, to advance the objects proposed by that 
letter. And the non-arrival of Titus occasioned him, be- 
sides, this inconvenience — having parted with Timothy, he 
had no help to support him in a promising opportunity of 
usefulness at Troas. For once he was under the pressure 
of discouragement. He wrote : " When I came to Troas, 
and a door was opened to me of the Lord, I had no rest 
in my spirit, because I found not Titus, my brother ; but 
taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Mace- 
donia " (2 Cor. ii. 12, 13). 

In this mood Paul came to Philippi, where, upon his 
arrival, he found no abatement of his trouble ; his language 
being, " For when we were come into Macedonia our flesh 
had no rest, but we were troubled on every side ; without 
were fighting, within were fears " (vii. 5). 

Happily the suspense was of short duration. And as 
he had before emerged from under a cloud, so now, by the 
arrival of Titus, who joined him at Philippi, his anxieties 
were dispelled ; and, inspired by happier feelings, he 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 199 

wrote, " Nevertheless, God that comforteth those that are 
cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not 
by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he 
was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, 
your mourning, your fervent mind towards me, so that I 
rejoiced the more ; ' (vii. 6, 7). 

This visit of the Apostle to Philippi formed another 
leading event in the life of Luke. With what feelings two 
such friends, and upon such an occasion, greeted each other, 
can only be faintly conceived ; — one being the chief agent in 
the great work of evangelisation, and the other the historian 
of that work ; and the hearts of both of them, alike burning 
with devotion to the Master, by whom the sphere of each was 
appointed. The communications of the Apostle to his friend 
concerning his labours and troubles in Greece and Procon- 
sular Asia, are reported in the seventeenth to the nineteenth 
chapters of the Acts. In their conversations, Luke, in his 
turn, would have related how the Church over which he had 
presided had flourished under the sensible influence of 
Christ's fulfilled promise ; how the minds of the converts 
were illumined, like those of the first, to an immediate 
perception of the truths announced ; and how their growth 
in the knowledge of the gospel had been quickened by an 
experience of its power. After so long an absence, Paul 
would have been introduced to a multitude of new friends. 
And it was by the opportunities afforded by this visit that 
he became acquainted with the prosperity and character of 
the Church at Philippi. Reminiscences of this occasion of 
his fellowship with its members pervade the epistle after- 
wards addressed to them. 

The collections throughout the Churches in Macedonia hav- 
ing been completed either before Paul's arrival or soon after- 
wards, it was proposed that,, whilst he remained a while at 
Philippi, a deputation should be sent to Corinth, to further 
the object of the fund, concerning which the Corinthians 



200 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

had before been advised. It was upon the occasion of the 
departure of this mission that this, the Second Epistle to 
the Corinthians, was written. The chief topics of this 
epistle are three : the first concerns the report brought by 
Titus of the temper in which the former epistle had been 
received by the Corinthian Church. This topic occupies the 
first two chapters. The second topic consists chiefly of a 
vindication of the writer's character as an apostle of Christ, 
and of the consequent divine authority of his teaching. In 
the degree that heathenism or Judaism prevails in a Church, 
the spiritual element of Christianity is opposed, and those 
with whom " Christ is all " are contemned. This was wit- 
nessed at Corinth. Less than two years had sufficed to 
change the feelings of some of the fickle Corinthians towards 
the Apostle and his doctrines. "False apostles" having 
been admitted, the writer expresses the " fear lest, as the 
serpent beguiled Eve, so the minds of his correspondents 
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 
The vindication of himself and his teaching is treated at 
large from the third to the seventh chapters, and is again 
resumed at the tenth chapter. Throughout this vindica- 
tion there are not wanting those occasional gushes of holy 
thought and discourse which form such a quickening pro- 
perty in all the Apostle's writings ; a sublime example of 
which is contained in the fifth chapter. The third topic of 
the epistle relates to the business of the collection. This 
topic is treated in a long parenthesis, occupying the eighth 
and ninth chapters. In these chapters, which almost seem 
like a distinct document, the Apostle reminds the Corin- 
thians of the request which he had made to them twelve 
months before, to gather contributions in behalf of the poor 
brethren in Judea : he informs them of the alacrity with 
which the churches of Macedonia had engaged in the busi- 
ness ; he incites his correspondents to liberality by setting 
the poverty of these against the wealth of the Corinthians. 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 201 

He says, " ^\ T e desired Titus, as he had begun, so he would 
also finish in them the same grace also " (viii. 6). Further, he 
expresses gratification that God had put into the heart of 
Titus to be forward of his own accord to accept this service 
(ver. 16,1 7). And thereafter follow two clauses which, next 
to the subject of Luke's identity, involve the most debated 
points that occur in his biography. The first clause is : 
" And ice have sent the brother, whose praise is in the gospel, 
throughout all the churches" (ver. 18). The second is this : 
" And we have sent with them our brother, whom ice have found 
diligent in many tilings, but noiv much more diligent upon the 
great confidence which he has in you " (ver. 22). 

The question here arising is, Who were these two per- 
sons that, not being named, are thus described? Every 
companion of the Apostle, whether having been with him 
when the letter was written or not, has been claimed for 
one or the other of them. Concerning the first of them, 
some say he was Barnabas. But Barnabas is excluded, for- 
asmuch as that he was not in Macedonia when the epistle 
was written, nor had he been in Paul's company since he 
parted from him at Antioch, at which time he was suc- 
ceeded by Silas (Acts xv. 39, 40). Silas has been proposed. 
But Silas had not come from Ephesus with Paul on this 
occasion, and therefore he could not have been the brother. 
Nor could Timothy have been the brother, for he was joined 
with Paul in writing the epistle. Neither could Mark have 
been the brother, for he had gone with Barnabas. After 
these, resort is had to the list of six of Paul's companions, 
who went before him from Macedonia, and tarried for his 
arrival at Troas (Acts xx. 4). Of those, Aristarchus is gene- 
rally preferred. But he likewise is excluded, there being 
no other previous notice of him than that, along with Gaius, 
he was caught by the incensed Ephesians (Acts xix. 29), a 
notoriety quite unequal to that of this brother. In behalf 
of another of the six, Dr Stanley, in his exposition of the 



202 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

verses, says, " If it ivere worth while to hazard a conjecture, 
it would be that one of the two may have been Trophimus. 
He, like Titus, was one of the few Gentiles who accom- 
panied the Apostle. An Ephesian, and likely to have 
accompanied him from Ephesus now, he was, as is implied 
of " this brother," whose praise, &c, is well known, so well 
known that the Jews of Asia at Palestine immediately 
recognised him ; he was also especially connected with the 
Apostle in this very mission of the collection" (Acts 
xxi. 29). " It also appears that he was with St Paul on 
his return from this very visit " (xx. 4). 

But neither will this plea save Trophimus from exclu- 
sion ; for the fact of his having been so well known as to 
have been afterwards recognised by Jews from Asia at 
Jerusalem is very far from answering the fame of the 
brother, whose praise or fame in or by the gospel had ex- 
tended to the Churches in Greece as well as Asia. Again, 
in behalf of Trophimus and Tychichus, it is said, " We are 
informed that Trophimus and Tychichus (both Ephesians), 
were with St Paul at Corinth (Acts xx. 4) " (Conybeare and 
Howson). But was it so 1 Where is this related concern- 
ing these persons % Certainly not in this verse, nor yet in 
any preceding verse. Had they been in Corinth with Paul, 
their names, it must be supposed, would be found mentioned 
along with those in Romans xvi., written in Corinth. The 
verse (xxi. 4) simply records the names of persons at Phil- 
ippi who were prepared to accompany Paul to Asia — Trophi- 
mus and Tychicus standing last in the list, probably for the 
reason that they were the juniors. Eventually, however, 
according to the next verse, instead of sailing in company 
with Paul, they went before and tarried at Troas. Neither 
of them was in Paul's company when he wrote this epistle. 
And what is more, this is the first appearance of their names 
in history. So, there is no evidence whatever to show 
that they had^acquired the character of these deputies. 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 203 

But besides those associates mentioned (Acts xx. 4), 
there was another person in Paul's company when now in 
Philippi. This person is not named ; but his presence is 
revealed by the little word us. No difficulty is felt in in- 
terpreting this pronoun as signifying St Paul and the nar- 
rator of these incidents himself. Nevertheless, concerning 
this other companion of the Apostle, Dr Alford, upon 
reviewing a regiment of candidates, plainly avers the 
claims for Luke to be " altogether without proof ; " and he 
further declares, " the identity of this brother must remain in 
uncertainty." 

These seem great discouragements, but they do not create 
despondency. The arguments of this chapter were framed 
long before either of these expositors was consulted ; and 
their objections have only instigated to a closer examina- 
tion of the writer's positions, and a more studious essay to 
confirm them. 

And, first, for the direct evidence, or that which regards 
the concurrence of Luke's history with the terms of this 
commendation of the brother. By the prefix of the definite 
article the is denoted a pre-eminence of fame, whereby all 
competitors are excluded. And, secondly, by the terms 
" whose praise is in (or by) the gospel throughout all the 
Churches," is described an agent in publishing the gospel, 
whether by preaching or writing, or by both, whose labours 
herein had been co-extensive with the sphere of the 
Apostle's own successes. But than the concurrence of 
Luke's history herewith, nothing can be more exact. Luke 
was known personally or by reputation to all the Churches 
which had been raised by St Paul. He had been among 
the first who preached the gospel to the heathen. He had 
spent several years at Antioch as a chief in council, occupied 
in establishing a Church there. He had been honoured to 
be one of those who were commanded by the Holy Ghost 
to separate two apostles to the ministry by which those 



204 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

Churches had been raised that are here represented as ac- 
knowledging their obligations to the brother. He was a 
partner with Paul, Silas, and Timothy in the enterprise of 
the first mission to Europe. He had fulfilled an extended 
ministry at Philippi, where his habit of inquiring of every 
messenger concerning the progress of the gospel gave him a 
celebrity throughout all the Churches. He had published a 
written Gospel, copies of which had been carried by Paul 
and his fellow-labourers to all places visited by them, 
whereby each new community had become possessed of the 
narrative which formed an authentic text of the Apostle's 
preaching. If the Apostle Peter mentions the writings of 
St Paul as those of "our beloved brother Paul" (Ep. iii. 
15), does it not appear to be an agreeable coincidence that 
the Apostle Paul should be found treating his writings and 
speaking of his person in a similar manner, who has com- 
posed notices of the ministry of both of them 1 Indeed, that 
some allusion to his great services in the gospel should find 
a place in St Paul's correspondence is just what would be 
hoped for. And if, by the circulation of his Gospel, Luke's 
fame had reached places where he was hitherto personally 
unknown, as at Corinth, where could a mention of him 
more appropriately occur than upon the occasion of his 
first introduction to the chief Church that had hitherto 
been raised in Europe 1 Surely nothing is more natural 
than such a circumstance. 

But this is not all. Grateful confidence in this " brother" 
is expressed in the clause, " And not only that, but who 
was chosen of the Churches to travel with us (ver. 19), — 
rendered by Wiclyf, " the felowe of our pilgrimage unto 
this grace." Having in the former clause expressed his 
own sentiments concerning the brother, St Paul appends 
this note declarative of the estimation in which he was held 
by the Churches whose contributions had been gathered 
also with the design further to accredit his mission. Upon 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 205 

this clause Dr Macknight has this remark : " This is 
the second declaration concerning the person sent. It agrees 
very well with Luke ; for, having lived so long in Ma- 
cedonia, he was well known to the Macedonian Churches, 
who, by making him their messenger to Judea, showed 
their great respect for him." Harmonising herewith, do 
not the emphatic words, " And not only that" seem to 
breathe forth gratification felt by the writer at the pros- 
pect of having such an admirable companion in his journey 
to Jerusalem 1 

Proceeding to the circumstantial evidence of the case, the 
identity of "the brother" and Luke is confirmed by the 
following particulars : — 

1. After Luke's arrival at Philippi, as related Acts xvi. 
12, there is no notice of his having left that city until the 
occasion of this mission to Corinth. 

2. Luke's name appears at the end of the epistle as hav- 
ing, along with Titus, conveyed that document to Corinth ; 
and although the subscription was probably added by a 
scribe who had inferred the notice from 2 Cor. viii. 18, yet 
there it is, an echo of antiquity at least. 

3. Luke is found to have been at Corinth at the time 
that Paul was there on the business treated of in the 
epistle. This is seen in the occurrence of the name Lucius 
among the salutations delivered under Paul's hand in the 
Epistle to the Romans, written during the Apostle's visit 
(Rom. xvi. 21). 

4. Luke was in Paul's company when he had returned 
from Corinth to Macedonia, on the eve of commencing his 
journey to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 6). 

5. When the rest of Paul's company had preceded him 
from the shores of Europe, having deferred his own de- 
parture, doubtless, for an important reason, only Luke is with 
him — a distinction both harmonising with the terms in 
which the brother had been commended by the Apostle, and 



206 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

in keeping with the honour of having been appointed to be 
his companion in the mission. 

6. Luke's identity with the brother in question is recog- 
nised by some of the Fathers, and has been so by the Latin 
Church from time immemorial; a lesson appointed for 
Luke's anniversary being 2 Cor. viii. 16-24. Origen writes : 
" The third Gospel is that according to Luke, com- 
mended by Paul in the second Epistle to the Corinthians." 
Grotius observes : " Neither am I dissatisfied with the 
opinion of many ancients, but I accept the application of 
2 Cor. viii. 18 to Luke." This identity is recognised by 
Wetstein in his large edition of the Greek Testament, and 
by Dr Whitby in his Commentary. And long after the 
preceding argument was composed, the writer was gratified 
to find that Bishop Wordsworth, in his edition of the Greek 
Testament, affirms the application of this passage to Luke 
by a series of observations, of which some are these — 

1. " We need not disparage the application made of these 
words to St Luke by ancient writers, Origen, Primasius, and 
St Jerome." 2. " The words seem plainly to point to some 
written document, circulated, like St Paul's own epistles at this 
time, by copies through the Churches, and probably read pub- 
licly in them, as those epistles were." 3. " There is a 
peculiar propriety in the fact that St Paul, the inspired 
Apostle of the Gentile Churches, here sets his apostolic 
seal on that Gospel which was specially designed for Gen- 
tile use." 4. " Observe, also, the person here mentioned 
was chosen and appointed by the suffrages of the Churches 
to be St Paul's coadjutor, to convey the alms of the Gentile 
Churches to Jerusalem. This incident confirms the sup- 
position that the person in question was St Luke, as St 
Paul's intimate friend and companion, who was more likely 
to be associated with him." 5. " The person in question 
was also well known and highly esteemed by all the 
Churches for his labours in the gospel, and he was chosen 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 207 

for that reason." 6. " If St Luke's Gospel had been 
written and circulated, it would have recommended him 
for such a mission." 7. "To praise such a person was 
inexpedient. He whose praise is in the gospel needs no 
other praise." 

And withal the Bishop adds this challenge : " Has it ever 
been proved that St Paul does not refer to a written gospel, and 
consequently to the Gospel of St Luke ? Certainly not." 

Upon a survey of these several considerations, it follows, 
that as they meet in the history of no individual besides 
Luke's, those persons who have been proposed for the 
brother in question are rather to be regarded as having been 
among those who, in their several Churches, had published 
the brother's praise. 

Equally disputed is the question concerning the identity 
of the individual referred to in the words, " And we have 
sent with them another brother." " Still less," writes Dr 
Alford, " can we determine who this second brother is." 
Here, then, is another historical dilemma. This doubtful 
question likewise is here sought to be pursued to an issue. 
Sometimes a clue to the solution of a problem is found by 
the student unexpectedly. In this case the person to whom 
evidence points is one whose name, it is believed, has not 
hitherto been mentioned by any writer in relation to the 
inquiry. The particulars here to be examined are two — 

1. " Whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things." 

2. " But now much more diligent upon the great confidence 
which he (this brother) had in you;" not, as in the English 
version, " i" have in you," which is contrary to the sense of 
the clause (2 Cor. viii. 22). 

Here, again, it must be premised that the inquiry is 
limited to those only who were in Paul's company when 
these words were written. His companions here, as far as 
known, were few. They were — 1. Timothy, who, as he 
was joined with the Apostle in addressing the letter, and 



208 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

remained with him at Philippi, could not have been the 
person described; 2. Titus, whose name is mentioned in 
the letter ; 3. Luke, whose claim has just been argued ; 4. 
Erastus, whose arrival at Philippi, along with Timothy, 
was noticed at the commencement of this chapter. In 
respect, therefore, of the necessary condition of being one 
of the company present at the writing of the letter, Erastus 
is the only other possible candidate known. And his claim 
is further confirmed by a reference to the notices fortu 
nately elsewhere found concerning him. It is here said, 
" Whom we have often proved diligent in many things" The 
being " diligent in many things " signifies something else 
than preaching. It refers to the conduct of affairs, pollakis, 
in various ways. Now in the Epistle to the Romans, 
written when Paul had followed the deputation to Corinth, 
not the name only of Erastus occurs, but also his secular 
position is added ; the words are, " Erastus, the Chamber- 
lain of the city, saluteth you " (xvi. 23). The original word 
oikonomos is employed by Luke in his Gospel (xii. 42), 
where it is translated steward. By the Romans this officer 
was called a Quaestor. It is probable that Erastus was one of 
Paul's converts during his first sojourn at Corinth : but it 
does not appear that, upon his embracing Christianity, he 
relinquished his office in the city. 

In Acts xix. 22, as it has already been seen, Erastus is 
represented as having been atEphesus, and is described as one 
of those who ministered to Paul. By this notice is discovered 
the lively interest with which Erastus regarded the Apostle's 
person and work. Dr Paley remarks : "It appears, from 
various instances in the Acts, to have been the practice of 
many converts to attend St Paul from place to place" 
(" Horse Paulinse "). So Erastus had followed his father in 
the gospel to Ephesus, where his zeal had been quickened 
at witnessing how mightily the Word of God grew and pre- 
vailed through the Apostle's ministry. What the nature of 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 209 

the assistance was that Erastus rendered to Paul is sug- 
gested by his previous occupation. He brought to his 
friend's assistance, "in many things," those abilities for 
business which his office at Corinth required, and which 
were habitual to him. The business of the collection for 
the poor brethren in Judea, which had been commenced a 
year before, much occupied the Apostle. Upon repairing 
to Ephcsus, therefore, Erastus zealously engaged in promot- 
ing that object. And, in its management, who could have 
been more competent than the Quaestor? God provides 
all kinds of agents for His service. 

In coupling Erastus with Timothy in the errand from 
Ephesus to Macedonia, is seen a proof of the appreciation 
of the previous services of the Chamberlain ; the more so, 
as, according to the narrative of the context, the parting 
with Timothy, at the time, must have been attended with 
much inconvenience to the Apostle. They brought no 
letter addressed to the Churches in Macedonia. The 
recommendation of the object for which they sought alms 
was left to their own exposition of its claims. Their 
mission was successful. And the response made by the 
Churches to their application is gratefully told by Paul in 
his address to the Corinthians in behalf of the same object 
(2 Cor. viii. 1-6). When, therefore, " after a season," Paul 
having come from Ephesus to Philippi, had received their 
report, it was natural that he should now wish to unite 
with Titus and Luke in the same undertaking at Corinth 
Erastus, whose diligence in the business had already been 
so amply proved elsewhere. 

The second particular specified concerning this other 
brother is this : " But now much more diligent upon the 
groat confidence which he has in you." A single sentence 
will suffice upon this. Who better than the Qusestor of 
the city could have possessed the knowledge of the 
Corinthians that would have inspired this confidence? 

o 



21 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

And, to complete this view of the case, it should be added, 
that in coming from Ephesus to Macedonia, and in going 
from Philippi to Corinth, Erastus was in the proper course 
of his way home. Also harmonising with this chain of 
coincidences is the information contained in a subsequent 
notice of him, made when Paul was in prison at Kome 
(2 Tim. iv. 20), where the Apostle imparts the intelli- 
gence to Timothy, " Erastus still abode at Corinth ;" a 
very naturally- made memorandum, signifying that Erastus 
was not absent from home on any errand like that in which 
he had once gone in company with Timothy to Asia and 
Macedonia. If there be any solidity in this exposition, 
how valuable appear the sacred scintillations which furnish 
the ground of this argument ! Within a circle of four pas- 
sages, including the primary one under consideration, there 
is traced a portrait worthy to be viewed in the scriptural 
gallery. Yet so little has this " worthy " been recognised, 
that not even the name of Erastus has a place in that bibli- 
cal treasury, Dr W. Smith's large " Dictionary of the Bible." 
No wonder, therefore, that Tychichus and Trophimus are 
proposed therein for these anonymous brothers.* 

The importance with which this mission was regarded is 
manifest from the ninth chapter of the epistle, wherein its 
object is forcibly urged throughout. And than the three 
persons composing the embassy, no more important agents 

* Since the above observation was made, an Appendix has been pub- 
lished to Dr Smith's Dictionary, wherein the name " Erastus" appears as 
representing two persons — 1. Erastus "with Paul at Ephesus, and sent 
thence with Timothy to Macedonia (Acts xix. 22)." 2. Erastus "the 
Chamberlain of Corinth, Rom. xvi. 23, and mentioned 2 Tim iv. 20." 
This curt method of dealing with such a question ought not to satisfy 
a student. How much of the interest of Scripture characters is lost 
when they are duplicated in this manner ! In the very valuable 
" Lexion Universale " of Hofman, 4 vols, folio, 1698, is a notice of 
Erastus, in which the several instances wherein the name occurs in the 
New Testament are applied to one individual. 



LUKE'S MISSION TO CORINTH. 211 

were at hand. Xor yet, had more suitable persons been 
sought from afar, could there have been found any that 
were better adapted than these to accredit its object in the 
eyes of the Corinthian Church. These were — 1. Titus, 
who, in the absence of Paul, acted as an Episcopus at 
Corinth ■ 2. Luke, a venerable servant of Christ, and bene- 
factor to all the Churches that had been raised by apostolic 
teaching ; 3. Erastus, " the Chamberlain of the city," and 
withal a zealous disciple of the Lord Jesus. Hence appears 
a reason why, instead of the names of the last two of these 
being given, their characters are portrayed. It was to 
do them the more honour. This metonymical method of 
speaking of them was alike complimentary to themselves 
and also to the Corinthians. By the report of Titus, as 
well by that of others visiting Corinth, and also by their 
use of his Gospel, the Church there could not fail to have 
become familiar with the reputation of him who, in super- 
eminence, was the Evangelist of the Gentiles. Of course, they 
both knew and honoured the Chamberlain of the city. Paul 
preferred character to name. When mentioning the names 
of beloved friends, he not unusually couples therewith a 
descriptive epithet. And sometimes omitting the name, he 
denotes them only by their character and sendees, as in the 
instance of the women at Philippi (Phil. iv. 3). 

But more than this. Besides this expression of the mind 
of the Churches of Macedonia, by whom the deputation was 
appointed, there follows another clause in the epistle, which 
especially manifests Paul's own personal sentiments towards 
the deputies. He had written in another place concerning 
himself : " Need we, as some, epistles of commendation to 
you, or from you 1" (iii. 1). Yet, for the reason that false 
apostles had challenged his commission, he had entered into 
a large vindication of his authority. So, for the reason that 
the authority of the brethren forming this deputation might 
likewise be questioned by the querulous, and thereby their 



212 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

errand hindered, it became as expedient as it was agreeable 
with his own generous nature, that he should put under the 
same seal his own personal estimate of them, which he does 
by adding this impressiye certificate: "Whether any do 
inquire concerning Titus, he is my partner and fellow- 
helper; or our {two) brethren, they are the messengers of 
the Churches, and the glory of Christ" (viii. 23). No 
encomium can surpass this, and no comment can heighten 
its lustre. 






CHAPTER XXII. 

LUKE IN CORINTH. 

In going direct from Philippi to Corinth, the customary 
course was by sea; and as it was likewise the least fatiguing, 
it is presumed that this was the course taken by the dele- 
gates, Luke, Titus, and Erastus. The iEgean is a true 
Polynesia : it is starred with islands, and the navigation is 
for this reason troublesome. As the ship was brought 
every night to a mooring, the time occupied in the voyage 
would not have been less than four days, the distance 
being about two hundred miles. The traffic on this sea 
was a hundredfold above what it is now. Ports which 
were thronged with shipping are no longer ports at all. 
Luke's mind would be differently exercised upon this 
voyage than when, six years before, he traversed this sea 
from Troas. During that period, the Word of the Lord 
had sounded forth into all the principal towns of Greece, 
and from them had been wafted to the coasts and to some 
of the isles upon which his eyes now glanced. Grateful 
sentiments would possess the mind of the Evangelist, 
prompting conversations by the way, encouraging his com- 
panions to perseverance in the work to which they had put 
their hands. 

Having at length turned into the gulf that stretched 
towards the Corinthian isthmus, the city of Athens 
was discerned on the right, four miles distant from the 
shore. The harbour of Cenchrea was entered, between 
a temple on either hand, and the mole was ornamented 
with a brazen statue of Neptune. From the ship, the 



214 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

travellers stepped into a scene which at once bespake the 
importance of the city of their destination. The harbour 
of Cenchrea was commodious, and the town of considerable 
extent. The distance from hence to Corinth was eight 
miles. Conducted by his companions, who were familiar 
with the neighbourhood, Luke was instructed in the various 
features of the intervening scenes. All corresponded with 
what had first met the eye. A temple of Diana was passed, 
and on both sides of the road were found, at intervals, 
tombs which, by their affecting inscriptions, wailed a voice 
to the travellers. At the terminus was a grove of cypresses 
dedicated to mourners ; and near the gate of the city was 
pointed out the sepulchre of Diogenes, the great exemplar 
of austerity, both subjective and objective, as the learned 
would say. That philosopher, having been captured, dur- 
ing a voyage, by pirates, was sold to a Corinthian, who 
appointed him tutor to his sons. By Plato he was called 
the "mad Socrates." The instance of his uncouthness ex- 
hibited upon the interview with him of Alexander the 
Great, is too well known to need to be repeated. He died 
at the age of ninety, B.C. 324. 

Corinth, with its surrounding scenery, presented a spec- 
tacle animated and picturesque. The city was five miles in 
circumference, and, including its Acrocorinthus, ten miles — 
embracing together a very large population. " The Acro- 
polis of Corinth," Mr Dodwell says, " is one of the finest 
objects in Greece. It stands majestically 1800 feet in 
height, and forms a conspicuous object at a great distance — 
being seen from Athens, which is forty-four miles distant " 
("Tour in Greece," vol. ii., p. 187). The isthmus, upon 
which athletic games were celebrated every three years, 
is a natural curiosity. At its narrowest part it is four 
miles, and at the widest eight miles broad, and it is about 
eight miles in length. It was contiguous to this narrow 
junction that the metropolis of Achaia was situated. In 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 215 

the centre of civilisation, and with the unique advantage of 
having ports on either side of the isthmus, it grasped, as 
with two hands, the traffic of the countries east and west. 
By the poets it was called "the city with two seas" (Bi- 
maris). Despoiled by a general of the Koman Republic, and 
thereafter forlorn for a hundred years, it was re-established 
by Julius Caesar, when it again repaired its fortunes. The 
opulence of its inhabitants was relieved by a profuse ex- 
penditure. By their patronage, the arts flourished among 
them beyond all other places, except Athens. Architecture, 
statuary, and casting in brass, were here carried to their 
highest perfection. With specimens of these the city was 
magnificently adorned. And, along with its sister city of 
Athens, it was visited by students in art from every land, 
as Italy is visited now. 

Eighty years after the period of Luke's visit, Pausanias, 
a man of learning and taste, having made a tour in Greece, 
composed what served the dilettanti of those days for a 
Handbook descriptive of the principal objects of art existing 
throughout the country. Fortunately this book has survived. 
Without the information contained therein, the knowledge 
concerning those objects would have been very fragmentary ; 
for, excepting those which have been gathered into the 
museums of Europe, scarcely a relic of them is to be seen 
on the spot. Even to Luke, who had been familiar from 
his youth with the displays of important cities, the num- 
ber and character of the objects that everywhere met his 
# eye must have been exciting. Exceeding in artistic dis- 
play all other localities was the Forum. This spacious 
place was entirely surrounded by public buildings, and 
otherwise adorned with columns and statues the pride of 
the Corinthians, and the admiration of visitors. Among 
the more characteristic of those objects, as told by Pau- 
sanias, there was a temple of Mercury, the divinity of com- 
merce; there was a temple of Fortuna, the daughter of 



2 1 6 B I OGB A PRY OF SA INT L UKE. 

Oceanus, within which was a statue of the goddess in 
Parian marble ; there was a temple dedicated to " All the 
gods," which of course included the " Unknown God " 
whom the Athenians ignorantly worshipped. Around the 
Forum were numerous statues, mocking, as it seemed, 
the throng at their feet. Among these were three of 
Jupiter, who was held in great reverence by the Corin- 
thians, being, as was said, the father of Corinthus. One of 
these statues was nameless ; the second was called Jupiter 
the Terrestrial; and the third Jupiter the Highest (T^taroc). 
There was a much-admired wooden image of Bacchus, "gilt," 
says Pausanias, " in every part but the face, which is 
adorned with vermillion" — a becoming visage at least ! And, 
conspicuous above all, being in the centre of the Forum, 
there was a statue, in brass, of Minerva, a daughter of Jupi- 
ter, patroness of the arts, having for its base a bas-relief of 
the Muses. Surmounting the propylae at the north side of 
the Forum were two gilt cars, one bearing Phaeton, and the 
other the Sun. Having passed through the porch, there 
was seen, just beyond, the fountain of Pirene, so named 
from a nymph, who, in the language of fable, dissolved into 
tears at the death of her daughter, who had been accident- 
ally killed by Diana the huntress. Thence the road, lined 
on either side with sacred objects, ascended circuitously to 
the Acrocorinthus. The summit of this hill being of wide 
extent, upon it was built a town, with its several temples 
and statues. Here was a temple of Tranquillity, into 
which no person was permitted to enter ; and, high above 
all, a temple of Yenus, to whom the hill was dedicated. It 
is said that to this shrine, in the more luxurious days of 
the Corinthians, were attached a thousand female slaves 
dedicated to the service of this vile myth ; and that these 
priestesses, as they were called, contributed greatly both to 
the gaiety and to the wealth of Corinth. After descending 
the hill, the isthmus was next visited. Here also numerous 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 217 

objects attracted notice. Besides a theatre and a stadium, 
there were a temple of Jupiter Capitolinus ; a temple of Nep- 
tune, whose property the isthmus was said to be ; and a 
temple of Palsemon, in the precincts of which was a subter- 
ranean adytum, wherein, it was rumoured, Palsemon was still 
concealed. Near this temple was a statue of Ino, the mother 
of the said Palaemon, who threw herself, with her son, from a 
cliff near this place into the sea. Here, likewise, were statues 
of Bellerophon, son of the Corinthian king, Glaucus; also of 
Pegasus, the winged horse, upon which Bellerophon mounted 
into the air, and fought a chimera. Among the tombs on this 
side of the city was a sepulchre of the two children murdered 
by their mother, Medea, over which was raised an image of 
Fear, represented as a woman of a dreadful aspect. The 
harbours on each side of the isthmus were regarded as 
especially under the guardianship of Neptune — Leche and 
Cenchrea having been, it was said, his offspring. Besides 
these, many more objects and fables are described in the 
Corinthiacs of Pausanias, every interesting locality having 
had its patron god. 

Drawn by a witness, and he a heathen, the foregoing 
picture commands attention. It affords authentic illustra- 
tion of the monster evils with which the servants of Christ 
had to deal in fulfilling His charge among the Gentiles. By 
the scene before him, Luke could apprehend what were the 
emotions of Paul upon his first arrival in this city. He 
could feel how, without a divine admonition, his departure 
from hence might have been as speedy as had been his de- 
parture from Philippi. He could understand how, in view 
of the mad idolatry of this place, and of the fanatic perse- 
cution of him by the Jews, the mighty encouragement was 
needed, which in a vision was afforded to him, saying, "Be 
not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : for I am 
with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I 
have much people in this city" (Actsxviii. 9, 10). 



218 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

How the Apostle complied with this admonition was after- 
wards told by Luke (Acts xviii. 11). Of the consequences 
of his obedience to the heavenly vision, a memorial survives 
in his twin epistles to the Church gathered in that city. 
The occasion for writing the first of these was intimately 
connected with the idolatrous element of the place. A re- 
sidence of eighteen months amidst its scenes had imparted 
images to the writer's mind which the opportunity natur- 
ally reproduced ; and the correspondence of those images 
with the description of the realities by Pausanias, whilst it 
stamps authenticity upon the correspondence, imparts to it, 
likewise, an obvious speciality.* 

The epistle begins with three peculiarities. The first of 
these is, that, besides to the Church at Corinth, the letter 
is addressed " to all that in every place call upon the name 
of Jesus Christ ; " the second peculiarity is, the addition of 
the clause, "both their Lord and ours," — that is, the Lord 
of believers in every place ; and the third is, that He upon 
whom they call (whom they worship) is denominated Lord 
six times within a few lines, or from the second to the 
tenth verse. A reason for this reiteration is found in the 
writer's jealousy, the grounds for which immediately ap- 
pear. Idols and idolators are mentioned in the epistle 
twelve times, being eight times oftener than they occur in 
all the other of Paul's epistles together. Christ came to 
abolish idols (Isa. xlii. 5-8). He commands His servants to 
plant His gospel beside them. Paul had planted it amidst 
a forest of idols at Corinth. And here is witnessed his 
anxiety to promote its fruitfulness. Moved by a remem- 
brance of those scenes and objects, he speaks of " things 
offered in sacrifice to idols," and of " the idol's temple " 
(viii.) And teaching by the figure, so familiar to his corre- 

* " Corinth, a sight oppressing the spirits " (" Sights and Thoughts 
in Foreign Churches," by F. W. Faber, 1842, p. 500). How great the 
change since the visit of Luke ! 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 219 

spondents, he transfers the term "temple" to the persons 
of believers, saying, " Know ye not that ye are the temples 
of God ? " (iii. 16) • and again, "Your body is the temple of 
the Holy Ghost " (vi. 19). 

Also strongly reflecting the associations of the writer's 
visit to Corinth are the rebukes occasioned by the clinging 
to heathenism of the converts, who, as they had been ac- 
customed to say, " I am a disciple of Socrates/' " I am of 
Epicurus," " I am of Zeno," now said, " I am of Paul," " I 
am of Peter," " I am of Apollos." Nor less so is the fre- 
quent occurrence in the epistle of the word wisdom, and 
of those passages in which the wisdom of God, as dis- 
covered in the gospel of the cross of Christ, is set forth 
against the wisdom of their philosophers. Eminent among 
those passages are three : The first is that which expounds 
the nature and privilege of the believer's fellowship with 
God, a theme which is called " the wisdom of God, in a 
mystery," and which, although argued in terms as philo- 
sophical as divine, will be for ever a mystery to all except 
the spiritual man, for whom its exposition stands for a 
charter against all claims made to enfetter him. This re- 
markable passage is comprised in the second chapter. 

Another of those passages in which the excellence of the 
gospel beyond the philosophy taught by the heathen is set 
forth, is the eulogium of Charity contained in the thirteenth 
chapter. The divisions of the wise among the heathen were 
accompanied by the odium philosophorum, or hatred of one 
sect towards another. Whereas the Churches of Christ 
should be like the tribes of Israel, as seen arranged in their 
several encampments, their tents in goodly order, east and 
west, north and south, the Divine Presence from the centre 
shining equally upon them all, and where none was before 
or after another : the golden chain that should preserve 
this goodly order, and hold together the numerous peoples 
of diversified complexions, both physical and intellectual, 



220 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

gathered into the divine fellowship, being just this simple, 
lovely grace of Ohaeity. 

And the other remarkable passage suggested by a com- 
parison between heathen and Christian wisdom or teaching 
is that on the Resurrection, contained in the fifteenth chap- 
ter — a passage which, like a light shining upon the tombs 
that enclosed their dead, instructed the living by an argu- 
ment never before conceived by them, in the evidences of 
a blessed immortality, as well for the body as the soul of 
the righteous. And whereas the epistle is addressed " to 
all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our 
Lord," like the discourses of Jesus Christ in controversy 
with the Scribes and Pharisees, its teaching, grounded on 
the defects of a Church, is intended for a solemn lesson to 
every Christian, and throughout all ages. 

Luke was acquainted with that epistle. And now, with 
a vividness which only the sight could impart, he recog- 
nised the impress upon it of all by which he was sur- 
rounded. And when ever had the scene been looked upon 
by a more intelligent observer 1 In one sense it had no 
novelty for him. He had been surrounded from his early 
days by objects of art peculiar to a high degree of civilisa- 
tion, and, therefore, the sight would occasion to his mind 
no sudden emotion. Nevertheless, there was much in it 
that stirred his sympathies. In coming hither, he had 
passed on to another step in his sphere of observation. He 
had often heard spoken those proverbial sayings : " The 
brass of Corinth," " the pleasures of Corinth," " the pride 
of Corinth," and that other popular expression, " the Jove 
of Corinth." And, as the painter looks upon a new 
and striking scene influenced by devotion to his art, so 
Luke's reflections all rushed to one point. A new illustra- 
tion was obtained for his page. A conquest for Christ had 
been achieved in Corinth. 

That word, " I have much people in this city," had been 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 221 

realised (Acts xviii. 10). Here, as elsewhere, Paul had 
turned away many people by his preaching, " They be no 
gods which are made with hands " (Acts xix. 26). By the 
epistle (the second to the Corinthians) brought from Philippi, 
Luke was introduced to this new community of believers. 
Himself the only stranger of the three messengers, the 
warm heart of hospitality kindled towards him. Oh, how 
sweet was Christian fellowship then ! How rapturous to 
embrace an inspired servant of Christ, and he on an errand 
to their own doors ! Of all the candidates for his company 
as a guest, it is probable that he who had been his fellow- 
traveller, the city chamberlain, had already secured that 
gratification. Luke's fame had preceded him. As their 
benefactor in the gift of the gospel of facts, upon which the 
preaching of the doctrines they had received was founded, 
he was welcomed by the disciples in the spirit in which he 
was commended to them by their teacher. Curiosity would 
have been their first feeling towards him, love and grati- 
tude thereafter abiding. 

Every illustration of the power of the gospel was pre- 
cious to Luke. This visit afforded him many such illustra- 
tions. Besides those whose irregularities are censured in 
the former epistle, there were those in Corinth who had 
kept themselves unspotted, and were living in the freshness 
of first love, and with the activities that characterise it 
(1 Cor i. 2; vi. 11). In Corinth commercial associations 
were the chief ; and as Jews were found in all such places, 
they abounded here. Among the trophies of Paul's labours 
and perils in this city were two rulers of synagogues. Five 
of his converts from Corinth visited the Apostle at 
Ephesus, either drawn thither by business, or attracted 
by the doctrine and example of their teacher. Sosthenes, 
once a Jewish ruler, and, like Paul, at first a perse- 
cutor, being associated in the inscription of the epistle 
addressed from thence to the Corinthians, thereby en- 



222 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

dorsed all its expostulations and counsels. Admirable 
are such examples of fidelity. Auxiliaries in the great 
evangelical enterprise, the gratitude of posterity is ever due 
to those zealous merchants of Corinth. 

If it had been Luke's business to record his own pro- 
gress, it is probable that his narrative would have shown 
how he took the opportunity from Corinth to visit the sister 
city of Athens. To indulge the supposition, it may be 
thought that he might have gone thither in behalf of the 
same cause for which he came to Corinth — to obtain con- 
tributions from the Church there for the fund intended to 
be conveyed to Jerusalem ; or, he might have been prompted 
hereto by other inducements. Having come to the wealthiest 
city of Greece, he would desire to visit also the most learned, 
and, according to popular opinion, the most religious, of 
its cities, being said to present but one great altar to the 
gods, by reason of its numerous statues and temples. Luke 
would naturally wish to walk through a city of so much 
renown, and to compare its features with those of other 
great cities known to him. He would wish to follow the 
footsteps of his friend, especially when the trip could be 
so easily accomplished. A few hours' sail, on some fine 
morning, would bring him to one of the three ports of 
Athens. He had received an account of Paul's triumph 
there from the Apostle's own lips. But the relation as 
given (Acts xvii. 16-34), contains features which seem to 
indicate more than a verbal report. Besides a description 
of the manner and terms of the Apostle's proclamation of 
the sublime truths of his mission, a regard is had to the 
scenic circumstances thereof. The picture is completed by 
the accessories of the spot. And these are wrought in with 
a truthfulness to nature that has often attracted the admira- 
tion of travellers. 

Here is a picture by the Earl of Carlisle : " What is ad- 
mirable and wonderful is the harmonious blending of every 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 223 

detached feature with each other — with the solemn moun- 
tains, the lucid atmosphere, the eternal sea, all wearing the 
same unchanged aspect as when the ships of Xerxes were 
shivered on that Colian cape beneath ; as when the slope 
of the Acropolis was covered with the Athenian audience, 
to listen under this open sky to ^Eschylus and Sophocles ; 
as when St Paul stood on Mars Hill, and while summit 
above and plain below bristled with idols, proclaimed with 
the words of a power, to which not even Pericles could ever 
have attained, the counsel of the true God." Very em- 
phatic is what follows : — " Let me just remark, that even 
the impressive declaration of the Apostle, that God dwelleth 
not in temples made with hands, may be seen in effect when 
we remember that the buildings to which he must have 
almost inevitably pointed at the very moment were the 
most perfect that the hands of man have ever reared, and 
must have comprised the Theseum below, and the Par- 
thenon above him. It seems to have been well that ' art 
and man's device ' should be reduced to their proper level, 
on the very spot of their highest development " (" Diary 
in Turkish and Greek Waters," pp. 180, 189). 

It is related in the Acts (xvii. 34), a woman named 
Damaris believed. Perhaps Luke was entertained at her 
house, and had the opportunity to appreciate her character, 
or wherefore is she added to the list of women he delighted 
to honour 1 for there were also other women at Athens who 
believed. 

At Philippi a jailor had been one of Paul's converts : here 
the only individual named of the " men that clave unto 
him was one of the magistrates in the supreme court of 
judicature, Dionysius the Areopagite. Of course this 
worthy has a legendary history. A quantity of litera- 
ture has been attributed to him, having for titles, "The 
Heavenly Hierarchy," " The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," 
" Mystical Theology," together with epistles to Titus, to 



224 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

John the Evangelist, to Poly carp, and to others. But for- 
tunately for his credit, the existence of these books is not 
to be traced further back than the fifth century ; of which 
period these titles have a strong odour, and the contents a 
stronger relish. Yet of these Opera published under the 
name of Dionysius the Areopagite, four editions in folio have 
been issued, three of them with large annotations. With 
the literature attributed to him, the legends concerning his 
life correspond. According to these, he was consecrated 
a bishop by the hands of Paul ; he travelled to Jerusalem 
to meet the apostles who repaired thither from all parts of 
the world to be present at the last hours of the Blessed 
Virgin ; he visited Rome, where he was entertained by 
Pope Clement ; in his nineteenth year he repaired to 
Ephesus, to enjoy an interview with John the Evangelist. 
And to this day at Luxemburg, in a church dedicated to 
him under the name of St Denys, is pretended to be shown 
his skull, on the crown of which is the mark of a white 
cross ! His portrait was painted on a wall of Justinian's 
re-erection of the Basilica of Saint Sophia (Holy Wisdom) 
at Constantinople. His anniversary is marked in the eal- 
lendar for the 9th of October. 

But to return with Luke to Corinth. The arrival of Paul, 
being the last visit to that city, formed another interesting 
event for Luke. His words concerning it are, " And when 
he (Paul) had gone over those parts (Macedonia), and had 
given them much exhortation, he came into Greece " (xx. 
2); Paul had much wished this visit. When at Ephesus he 
had written to the Corinthians, " Now I will come unto 
you when I shall pass through Macedonia, and it may be 
will abide, and winter with you " (1 Cor. xvi. 4, 5) • and 
when he had reached Philippi, he wrote the epistle of which 
Luke and his companions were bearers, wherein he ex- 
pressed his intention to follow the messengers shortly. As 
he visited other places in Macedonia besides Philippi, it 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 225 

may have been above a month after they left him that he 
came to Corinth. Upon the Apostle's former visit to that 
capital, in obedience to the Lord's assurance, " I have much 
people in this city,' ; he had remained there eighteen months, 
" preaching Christ crucified, in demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power" (Acts xviii. 11 ; 1 Cor. ii. 2-4). During 
that period he had enriched the Church by his two Epistles 
to the Thessalonians ; and now, during his present visit, 
was written his Epistle to the Romans. Besides the 
weighty argument discussed therein, an interest belongs to 
this document in respect of its having been the last epistle 
written by the Apostle during the period in which he exer- 
cised his ministry at liberty. In the Apostle's recent letter 
to the Corinthians, Luke was spoken of otherwise than by 
his name. But in the epistle now written to the Romans, 
he is mentioned by his Roman name, Lucius. Here, then, 
occurs another landmark in Luke's biography, proof being 
hereby afforded that he was now in Corinth, having here 
remained until the Apostle's arrival. It stands in a group of 
names of persons whose salutations Paul conveys to the 
Church at Rome. The names are these — 1. Timotheus, my 
work-fellow; 2. Lucius (Luke), equally so;* 3. Jason, 
a Gentile of Thessalonica (Acts xvii. 5, 6) ; 4. Sosipater 
or Sopater, a Gentile of Berea (Acts xx. 4, 5) ; 5. Gaius, a 
Gentile, who is described by the Apostle as " mine host, and 
of the whole Church," signifying that he entertained the 
Apostle, and perhaps Timothy, and also that he afforded 
accommodation for the assemblies of the Church, so he was 
a man of position and substance : he was one of Paul's 
early converts in Corinth, and one of the few whom Paul 
baptized with his own hands (1 Cor. i. 14); 6. Erastus, a 
Gentile, the chamberlain of the city, or quaestor, an officer 
to whom belonged the receipt and expenditure of the public 

Lucius pariter. So paraphrased by Dr Gagnaeus in his Para- 
phrasis in Epist. ad Kom. Paris, 1533, 8vo. 

P 



226 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

money; 7. Tertius, a Gentile, the Apostle's scribe at the 
moment; 8. Quartus, a Gentile (Rom. xvi. 21-23). By 
these notices the reader is introduced to some of the saints 
with whom Luke was associated in Corinth. But besides 
these, there belonged to this city other brethren of note 
who may be supposed to have been absent at this moment. 
1. Sosthenes, the Jewish ruler (Acts xviii. 17), and associ- 
ated with Paul at Ephesus (1 Cor. i. 1); 2. Stephanas, bap- 
tized by Paul (1 Cor. i. 16, and xvi. 15, 17); 3. Eortun- 
atus, a Gentile ; 4. Achaicus, a Gentile (1 Cor. xvi. 1 7) ; 
5. Crispus, who had been a Jewish ruler, and baptized by 
Paul (Acts xviii. 8) ; 6. Justus, a Gentile (Acts xviii. 7) ; 
7. Chloe's family, Gentiles (1 Cor. i. 11). 

The Epistle to the Eomans was composed in the house of 
Gaius. And to this hospitable place Luke would often re- 
sort, and, with the company by whom the writer was sur- 
rounded, enjoy the communion of saints. Here was the 
Apostle of the Gentiles, himself a Jew. Here was the Evan- 
gelist to record the fulfilment of their Master's promised 
grace. Here were Jews and Gentiles ; both those who had 
before been proselytes to Judaism, and those who had 
stepped at once from paganism, all one in Christ. Here 
were converts of Corinth, entertaining with loving hospi- 
tality the true athletes, inspiring them by their grateful be- 
nignancy in the great work which takes them from place 
to place, and which had brought them here — teachers and 
converts, all disciples of the Christ of love. Happy reunions 
were those in the house of " mine host " at Corinth ! 

The epistle now addressed to the Romans was itself an 
expression of love, not only from the writer, but also from 
the friends by whom he was surrounded. It was a memento 
to persons who had stood in an interesting and personal 
relation both to Paul and to these. Curiosity is excited 
upon observing that, of persons named at the close of the 
epistle, and saluted as being in Rome, there are a score 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 227 

more than those who are named as saluting them. And an 
observation, likewise, of the notices appended to some of 
the names and the epithets bestowed upon others, adds to 
the student's inquisitiveness concerning them. It has been 
remarked, " It appears probable that the persons here 
named had formerly been residents in Asia or Greece, where 
the Apostle was acquainted with them." (Moses Stuart, 
1 Commentary on the Romans '). Another step may show how 
they came to have been residents there. Upon turning to 
Luke's account of the arrival of Paul on the occasion of his 
first visit to Corinth, it is told, that "Paul there found 
Aquilla a Jew, and Priscilla his wife ; because that Claudius 
had commanded all Jews to depart from Eome " (xviii. 2). 
This expulsion of the Jews from Eome is also mentioned by 
Suetonius. And that many of them were led to repair to 
Corinth in particular, is suggested by a note in the Corin- 
thiacs of Pausanius, where he says, " At present none of 
the ancient Corinthians inhabit Corinth. But the inhabit- 
ants consist of such persons as were sent into it by the 
Eomans." The new city having been colonised from Italy by 
Julius Caesar, consequently intimate relations must have 
subsisted between the Corinthians and Eome, and from 
which not even Jews, being natives of Corinth, would have 
been exempt. Hence, upon their expulsion from Eome, a 
multitude of Jews, who had formerly belonged to Corinth, 
would return hither with their families, whilst others 
would find their way to various places in Greece and Asia, 
where Paul and his coadjutors were labouring. The infer- 
ence is, that the aforesaid salutations were from Eomans to 
Eomans — Paul and Luke, as citizens by privilege, others 
as descendants of Eoman colonists, including Jews and 
Gentiles, men, women, and households. 

It is probable that the Church at Eome was originally 
composed of some of those Jews and proselytes who had 
been in Jerusalem upon the occasion of the passover sue- 



228 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

eeeding the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, when 
they heard those events expounded to them in the Latin 
language from the lips of an apostle with a miraculous 
demonstration. The expulsion of the Jews from Rome 
might seem detrimental to the infant Church there, but in 
one view it was rather advantageous to it. Hitherto un- 
visited by apostles or evangelists, the disciples in Eome 
were only imperfectly instructed in the economy of the 
gospel. They were now driven forth to the scenes of its 
chiefest triumphs, and for the space of four or five years 
they were mingled with the favoured communions raised 
and fostered by apostolical ministration. 

The salutations with which the epistle closes are useful 
here. Circumstances are mentioned in connexion with 
some of the names which tell of an acquaintance and a 
former companionship with the Apostle and with those who 
from Corinth salute them. It is hereby seen that some of 
those named were disciples before their dispersion. Some 
had been in Christ before Paul himself. Some had been his 
fellow-labourers ; and some had found, in their exile, a new 
and divine citizenship under his ministry. The Emperor 
Claudius died A.D. 54, and thereafter many returned to 
their Latin homes. From that time Paul counted in Rome 
many interesting friendships ; and friends like those named 
must be kept at any price. Such would hate been the 
judgment on both sides. The case of the couple that stand 
at the head of the list of salutations may be cited for a 
sample of all. When Paul first went to Corinth he found 
those energetic Christians there, and he joined them as a 
fellow-workman at their occupation in trade. Two years 
afterwards, they were at Ephesus, being the only persons 
named in the First Epistle to the Corinthians as saluting 
them ; and in a little more than a year from that time, or 
at the date of this Epistle to the Romans, they were again 
in Rome. 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 229 

Little can it be doubted, therefore, that the friend- 
ships thus formed occasioned Paul's present correspondence. 
Before the departure of his friends, it would seem, he had 
agreed to visit them at a convenient season. That he had 
so appointed, seems to have been known to Luke, who pro- 
bably, in order to follow the progress of the gospel, already 
contemplated to bear him company. Paul being still at 
Ephesus, and Luke at Philippi, the latter quotes, saying, 
" After I have been there" (Macedonia, Achaia, Jerusalem), 
" I must also see Rome " (Acts xix. 21). And now having 
come into Achaia, and before taking the next step of going 
to Jerusalem, the letter is written apprising his friends in 
Rome of his intention to fulfil his engagement. The Apostle 
begins his epistle by expressing that he committed himself 
to the enterprise by prayer ; " making request," he says, 
" if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous 
journey by the will of God to come unto you" (i. 10), 
"for I long to see you ;" adding, " Now I would not have 
you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come 
unto you, but was let hitherto" (13). All this obviously 
intimates pre-arrangement. And upon resuming the per- 
sonal part of the epistle, towards its close, the subject 
again stands foremost. Paul was a man of order as well 
as of earnestness. He must conclude one department of 
his work before he enters upon another. He furnishes the 
reason for his previous delays, by noticing the character 
and extent of the work in which he had been engaged. 
He tells his correspondents that, as " the minister of Jesus 
Christ to the Gentiles, through mighty signs and wonders 
by the power of the Spirit, I have fully preached the gospel 
from Jerusalem (in the south) to Illyricum (in the north), 
for which cause I have been much hindered from coming 
to you" (xv. 19-22). And observing, "Now having no 
more place in these parts," he proceeds to inform them of 
his plan, namely, of taking Eome in his way to Spain, after 



230 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

that he had gone to Jerusalem. And he beseeches them 
to unite their prayers with his own, that having accom- 
plished his errand to the saints there, he may thence come 
to them with joy by the will of God (xv. 23-33). 

The whole epistle bears a strong impress of the circum- 
stances under which it was written. The lurid picture of 
idolatrous pagans contained in the first chapter, is imme- 
diately connected with the preceding intimation of visiting 
Eome. Paul had preached at Athens and at Corinth, the 
chief seats of idolatry, as also learning and the arts, among 
the Greeks. And now he writes, " I am ready to preach 
the gospel to you that are at Eome also. For I am not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God 
unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, 
and also to the Gentile." The picture is produced to show 
that neither was he ignorant of the colossal evil against 
which he was about to oppose there, as elsewhere, the 
preaching of Christ crucified. 

So likewise the divine argument that follows, comprised 
in chapters ii. to xi. inclusive, whilst the subject of it might 
have been suggested by information given to Paul by his 
friends in Rome, is yet strongly linked with the epistles to the 
Corinthians and Galatians. Not having, as in their case, 
any remonstrances to make with the Eomans on the ground 
of inconsistency with teaching previously received from 
him, it is resolved into a treatise, supplementing, as it 
were, those epistles, as they concerned the position of Jew 
and Gentile in the economy of the gospel, and setting a 
seal for ever upon the doctrine so acceptable to all who 
know they have no other plea for salvation than free and 
unmerited grace through faith alone in Christ Jesus. 
About this encyclical there must appear to many persons 
something very unsatisfactory for the dignity of the Eomish 
Church that now is. No bishop is named, no priest, nor 
yet is there any official minister addressed, or so much as 



LUKE IN CORINTH. 231 

alluded to. But instead thereof, the Christians then in 
Kome are presumed to have been " able to instruct one 
another" (xv. 14). Moreover, the letter, instead of being 
sent by the hands of a legate, was despatched by a humble 
deaconness, proceeding from Cenchrea to Rome on her own 
secular affairs. 

There now only remained for Paul and his companions to 
conduct the business with the Church at Corinth which had 
chiefly brought him here. The Corinthians had been 
exhorted a year before to contribute, along with other 
Churches, towards a fund to be conveyed to the poor 
brethren in Jerusalem (1 Cor. xvi.) And having com- 
plied with the exhortation, and also with the request 
contained in the letter recently brought to them, the col- 
lections would have been completed. In this letter Paul 
had said, " And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve 
by letters, will I send to bring your liberality to Jerusalem. 
And if it be meet that I go, they shall go with me" 
(1 Cor. xvi. 2-4). Accordingly, an appointment was now 
made of the persons who should be the almoners. Already 
Paul had designed to visit Jerusalem soon after this 
season, and therefore he was chosen for a deputy of the 
subscribers to the fund. Luke, who had wished to accom- 
pany his friend, was chosen by the Churches to travel with 
Paul, and so might be regarded as a deputy of the Philip- 
pians, Aristarchus being the deputy of the Thessalonians, 
and Trophimus of the Ephesians. 

The appointment of such a company attests the import- 
ance with which their mission was regarded; and from 
the length of time during which the collections were 
gathered every Sabbath-day, and the situation of the con- 
tributors, as those rejoicing in their recovery from the 
darkness and slavery of degrading superstitions, it may be 
thought certain that a munificent offering had been pre- 
pared. The Apostle and Evangelist, in love, and in 



232 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

obedience to a divine monition, had brought the gospel 
into Macedonia and Achaia; and now they take back 
with them, as a fruit of their labours, an expression of 
grateful sympathy for the poor brethren of Judea — the 
acceptance of this trust being the last and crowniug act of 
their ministry in Greece. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

luke's voyage to Palestine. 

At this point begins the fifth section of the Acts of the 
Apostles, the date being about A.D. 58. Here another 
important stage in Luke's life is reached. It had been the 
intention of Paul to sail direct from Achaia to Syria, having 
his eye and affections fixed upon Antioch, as a stage to be 
visited on the way to Jerusalem. But this design was 
frustrated through his enemies, the unbelieving Jews. He 
was informed that a party of these had conspired to way- 
lay him when he should proceed to the ship, and of course 
for the purpose of killing bim, as on other occasions 
attempted. But the Lord had more work for His servant 
to do. Instead, therefore, of going down to the port of 
Cenchrea, he turned towards the opposite direction, and 
took the road to Philippi. Whether, with his companion, 
they went thither by land, or in part by sea, is not known. 
At Philippi they found several brethren who had been 
engaged in a ministry in Macedonia (Acts xx. 4). These, 
upon Paul and his companion's arrival, preceded them to 
Asia, whilst the former remained to indulge for a brief 
space in a farewell fellowship with their beloved Philip- 
pians. Besides, it may be supposed that there would be 
several things to set in order before their departure from 
Europe. After farewell addresses, doubtless embracing a 
review of what God had wrought by their ministry and 
that of their brethren, they at length bade the last adieu. 
They had come to Greece at the first in company, and they 
leave that continent together. The combination in the 



234 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

narrative of Paul and Luke by the pronouns us and tve, 
intimates the closeness of their fellowship, and also the 
special position of Luke in the embassy. Those that went 
away before, Luke says, " tarried for us at Troas ; and we 
sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread ;" 
that is, a week after the passover, or about the end of 
March. The voyage to Troas was more tedious than when 
they came from thence to Neapolis upon their first coming 
to Europe. The passage then had been performed in two 
days, whereas now, to return, the voyage extended to five 
days. 

The brethren who went before and awaited them at 
Troas were — 

1. Sopater (one of the Bible-searching nobles) of Berea. 
The three most ancient manuscript copies say, " the son of 
Pyrrhus." Sopater, or Sosipater, had been at Corinth when 
Paul and Luke were recently there (Rom. xvi. 21). With 
the wonderful tendency existing with some editors for 
multiplying the persons mentioned in the sacred books, 
Sopater and Sosipater are not allowed to be the names of 
one individual. 

2. Aristarchus of Macedonia. He had laboured with Paul 
at Ephesus, and had been used with violence in an uproar 
raised by the craftsmen (Acts xix. 29). Somewhat more 
than two years after this notice of him, along with Luke, 
he accompanied Paul to Italy. 

3. Gains of Derbe. He had laboured with the Apostle, 
and had suffered along with Aristarchus at Ephesus. It 
may be supposed that this Gaius was another person than 
" mine host" of Corinth. The name Gaius occurs five times 
in the New Testament, yet the only notice taken of it in 
Dr W. Smith's large " Dictionary of the Bible " is this : 
" Gaius , see John t the second and third epistles of." But even 
in this curtness there is an error, for the name does not 
occur in John's second epistle. 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO PALESTINE. 235 

4. Timothy of Lystra. He is properly paired with Gaius 
by reason of the contiguity of their residence. Timothy 
seems to have remained in Macedonia during Paul and 
Luke's visit to Corinth, and he was still at Philippi upon 
their return thither. 

5. Tychicus, and Trophimus of Asia. This is the first notice 
given of these two. Of the company congregated to meet 
Paul, only Trophimus is mentioned in connexion with the 
visit to Jerusalem (xxi. 29). 

Upon Paul's former passage through Troas, he had found 
there an effectual door opened for his ministry. The door 
being still open, his abrupt departure, on that occasion, is 
now compensated. Seven days were devoted to this service, 
and aided by the goodly company that attended him, those 
would prove days of refreshing to the Church at Troas. 
By the three copies S., V., and A., Luke appears in the 
reading, " Upon the first day of the week, when we came 
together," &c. (xx. 7). From the picture given of this 
farewell-service the day before the departure of the com- 
pany, it is seen that the interest of the Church in the 
exercises of the week was maintained to the last. The 
meeting was held in a guest-chamber upon a third floor, 
and the discourse of Paul was extended until midnight ; so, 
although the Apostle prescribed, " Let all things be done 
decently, and in order," he seems to have known nothing of 
uncanonical hours. 

A young man sought relief from the pressure and heat of 
the place by sitting in one of the windows — not a window 
having a frame with glass, but movable lattices. Over- 
powered by sleep, induced by long attendance and the 
ascending stream of heat, he lost his balance, and fell to the 
ground — probably not into the street, but into the court 
common to large houses. Here, apparently, was a calami- 
tous termination of the week's devotions. How painful 
would it have been to the travellers to have gone away 



236 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

with the sad impression received by the death of the youth 
under those circumstances ! But Jesus was with the spirit 
of His servant, prompting the faith which, exercised for 
the recovery of the deceased, was answered. The hand of 
Faith touched the hand of Omnipotence. To the joy of all, 
Eutychus was restored to his friends ; and so an impres- 
sive seal was set to the ministry that had been conducted 
during that memorable week. Although the dawn ap- 
proached, the congregation did not disperse. Paul again 
ascended to the apartment. He brake bread with the 
assembly in a true love-feast, and resumed his discourse 
with a new emphasis, as it would appear, to a people whose 
hearts were attuned to faith and joy by the miracle just 
witnessed. 

A few hours having been taken for repose, the time 
arrived when the company must commence their journey. 
From hence the Evangelist's narrative partakes the character 
of a panorama. Sketches of the successive scenes are given 
with a simplicity and power which only the hand inspired 
by the eye that witnessed them could have delineated. In 
the first scene, the Evangelist himself is revealed, and in a 
manner calculated to excite the reader's sympathy. He 
writes, " And we went before to ship, and sailed unto 
Assos, there intending to take in Paul, for so he had ap- 
pointed, minding himself to go afoot" (xx. 13). Upon this 
personal notice of the Evangelist, Charles Taylor pertinently 
remarks, " If I am not mistaken, we discover tokens of 
elderly weakness in this circumstance. Luke preferred 
proceeding by ship as less fatiguing. He might now " (adds 
Mr Taylor) " be about seventy-four or seventy-five years of 
age." The notice equally shows that, at this period, Paul 
possessed a vigour not often enjoyed by men of his age. 
The distance he walked was nearly twenty miles, over a Roman 
road, but a mountainous district. Assos was a seaport of 
Mysia. " The view of this city, at that time, from the sea 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO PALESTINE. 237 

was striking : in the foreground was an extensive cemetery, 
covered with huge sarcophagi of granite ; thence a flight of 
steps led to a terrace and porticoes, and the principal gates 
of the city ; the baths and edifices of the lower town filled 
up the scene, with the theatre, acropolis, and its temples 
rising majestically behind. The walls of the city were five 
miles in circuit. The acropolis is a rock of granite of 
very steep sides" (Dr Hunt in "Walpole's Turkey," vol. i., 
pp. 129,1 30). A traveller wrote in 1838, "I found the whole 
front of the hill a wilderness of ruined temples and theatres. 
All the buildings were of the solid Greek style, and the friezes 
much ornamented" (Fellow's "Travels in Asia Minor"). 

In few ancient writers is the manner of sailing, previous 
to the discovery of the magnetic needle, more fully illus- 
trated than by Luke. From the succession of places which 
he mentions, it is seen how carefully the ship " hugged the 
land," as sailors say. After the embarkation of Paul at 
Assos, several places are named at which the ship touched. 
On the fourth day of the voyage Miletus was reached, a sea- 
port of Caria, distant beyond Ephesus thirty miles. Here 
the company landed. The ship had passed over the Bay 
of Ephesus, but Paul would not put into a port there, lest, 
by going up to the city, he should get into any entanglement 
which might detain him. He had bidden farewell to the 
disciples there some months ago; but his expectations of a 
return to the scenes of his triumph in Asia had suddenly 
vanished. Since his embarkation he had received intima- 
tions which led him to conclude that his adieus to his 
friends in those parts were final. Apprehending that he 
would have no opportunity, besides the present, of a per- 
sonal interview with those at Ephesus, he sent a message to 
request the ministers of the Church there to meet him at 
Miletus. These were those called in the Epistle to the 
Ephesians " the faithful brethren," and here, by the histo- 
rian, z>resbuteroi, elders, and by the Apostle himself, epscojm, 



238 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

which the English version in other places translates bishops, 
but here overseers. The number of those ministers that 
came from Ephesus is not known. It is probable that they 
met Paul and his company at the house of a disciple at 
Miletus. 

All these incidents are eminently illustrative of the gene- 
ral plan of Luke's history. Nothing is related as being of 
fortuitous occurrence. Everything is connected either with 
the past or the future. Paul spake as a prophet in his 
address to the elders. That address touched a new chord. 
No revelation was made to him now, as formerly, promis- 
ing protection and assuring success. On the contrary, his 
language is, " And now, behold, I go bound in spirit unto 
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me 
there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, 
saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me" (xx. 22, 
23). " And now, behold, I know that ye all, among 
whom I have gone preaching the gospel, shall see my face no 
more " (25). Again Paul spake as a prophet when, with 
respect to themselves, he warned them, saying, " Take heed, 
therefore, . . . for I know this, that after my departure 
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the 
flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking 
perverse things, to draw away disciples after them " (28- 
30). How the scene that ensued touched Luke's sympa- 
thies is witnessed in the notes which, having jotted on his 
tablet, he afterwards transferred to the historic page. They 
are, " And when Paul had thus spoken, he kneeled down 
and prayed with them all" (observe their position in 
prayer), "and they wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, 
and kissed him " (an example of the kiss of charity); " sor- 
rowing most of all for the words which he spake, that 
they should see his face no more. And they accompanied 
him to the ship." So concluded Paul's ministry in Asia. 
The tender heart realises the solemnity of that procession. 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO PALESTINE. 239 

Having, with his company, gone on board the ship, 
Luke's feelings are again denoted. He describes the separa- 
tion from the Ephesian brethren by words which signify 
" tearing ourselves from them," but which are coldly trans- 
lated in the English version, "after we had gotten from 
them" (xxi. 1). Patara, to which place the ship was 
bound, was reached on the third day. This city was 
situated beside the river Xanthus, in Lycia. A fine collec- 
tion of Xanthian marbles, selected from the ruins in the 
neighbourhood by Sir Charles Fellows, and deposited in 
the British Museum, is described in his " Travels in Asia 
Minor," p. 421 to 456. At Patara a ship was found about 
to proceed to Phenicia. This was the longest reach they 
had made, and the most distant from the land ; for, by 
sailing on the west side of Cyprus, the circuit of the great 
bay in which that island lay was avoided, and a direct 
course taken to Tyre. At this port the company landed, 
" for there the ship was to unlade her burden." 

This was an interesting stage of the journey for Luke. 
The city of Tyre and its fortunes and misfortunes were 
familiar to him as a student of the Bible. Some of its 
inhabitants had gone forth "to hear Jesus, and to be 
healed of their diseases" (Luke vi. 17). And, along with 
the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, journeying from 
Jerusalem to Antioch, preached the gospel in Phenicia, 
Luke himself had been associated. That had been about 
eighteen years before the time of this visit. Christianity 
had not, it would seem, greatly flourished here, yet there 
were some disciples found, upon being sought after. With 
these, seven days were spent upon this occasion by the 
evangelical company. Here it was repeated to Paul, by 
disciples speaking by the Spirit, that " he should not go up 
to Jerusalem." No other particular of what transpired at 
Tyre is recorded. But again Luke depicts a farewell scene, 
and, like the last witnessed, the picture is accomplished by 



240 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

a few strokes : " And they all brought us on our way, 
with wives and children, till we were out of the city ; 
and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. And when 
we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship, and 
they returned home" (xxi. 5, 6). The representation of 
the movement of this procession is in keeping with what 
was the geography of the place ; the city having stood at 
some distance from the shore — some part of it on the high 
mainland, and some on an island, but connected by a mole. 
In the interest taken in the departure of the company by 
the " women and children," is not the ministry of the bene- 
volent physician, during those seven days' sojourn, to be 
traced •? And does not the specifying these notify his grati- 
fication in receiving from those "daughters of Tyre" this 
mark of their grateful affection 1 And then, how refreshing 
seems the kneeling for prayer in the cool of the sea-breeze, 
and within hearing of the ripple of the waves ! — how life- 
like the leave-taking ! — and how naturally do the words, 
" And they returned home," intimate that from the ship's 
deck the writers eyes followed the retiring group until lost 
from view ! 

The last port to which the company sailed was Ptolemais, 
now called Acre, renowned in modern history by its heroic 
defence, sustained successfully, under the generalship of 
Sir Sidney Smith, for two months against the assaults of 
Bonaparte's army. This place being distant twenty-five 
miles from Tyre, the voyage would have been made during 
the same day. The next day was spent with the disciples 
found there. And upon the day following, the company 
travelled by land to Csesarea, the distance being about 
twenty miles. The first circumstance mentioned by Luke, 
upon the arrival of the company in Csesarea, was one of 
special interest to himself: '< They entered the house of 
Philip, one of the seven deacons." He had known Philip 
when, heretofore, he abode in Jerusalem. His sympathies 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO PALESTINE. 241 

had, at an early period, been drawn to him as one whose 
ministry had been directed to Gentiles. The meeting of 
such friends would have been refreshing ; and many were 
the passages of each other's subsequent experience in the 
ministry of their divine Master which they would mutually 
recount. In Philip's house the company of delegates abode 
during their stay in the city, which extended to " many 
days ; " not more than ten or twelve, as the season of the 
Passover approached, which Paul wished to spend in Jeru- 
salem. With characteristic respect for the female branches 
of the house, Luke mentions the "four daughters" of his 
friend; and he sets it down as noteworthy, that "they 
prophesied." "What this term signified, as applied to them, 
must have been fully understood in the days wherein the 
prediction of Joel, quoted by Peter (Acts ii. 17), was mani- 
festly fulfilled : this, at least, it signified, that they were 
devoted deaconesses or servants of the Church, and, in 
Paul's language, " fellow-labourers " with the " faithful 
brethren." 

The only other incident having occurred during their 
sojourn here which is related, is an intensified remonstrance 
that was urged against the Apostle's proceeding to Jerusa- 
lem. By the arrival of Agabus from that city, they were 
put in possession of what was there known to be the evil 
intentions of the Jews against the Apostle of the Gentiles ; 
and in an enunciation accompanied by a symbolical action, 
Agabus emphatically declared what awaited Paul in Jeru- 
salem. Like the brethren in other places, those of Csesarea 
renewed their entreaties that he would proceed no further ; 
and in which entreaties they were joined by those of Paul's 
company, who seem hitherto to have refrained from any 
interference with his design. Luke himself, having heard 
the testimony of one whom he knew to be eminently en- 
dowed with the prophetic spirit, spake apprehensively ; for 
he writes, " And when we heard these things, both we and 

Q 



242 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

they of that place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem." 
Moved by their fears, thus impressively confirmed, they 
were able, besides repeating the cautions he had received, 
to urge that the object of their deputation to that city could 
be fulfilled without his presence there ; and that here, just 
on the border of the land, he would be in a place of safety, 
as he had before found, when he had been suddenly brought 
hither from Jerusalem by disciples (Acts ix. 30). Csesarea 
having been the great citadel and chief residence of the 
Eoman Governor of Palestine, no Jew dared to move 
riotously there. By the added solicitations of his own 
company, Paul's feelings were overcome. He had already 
perceived the danger which he approached, and had ex- 
pressed his conviction thereof to the elders of Ephesus. 
But he acted under an impulse stronger than all by which 
he was opposed. " He went bound in spirit." The con- 
flict was great. Magnanimously declaring his readiness to 
die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus, he 
triumphed, albeit in agony. " What ! mean ye to weep and 
to break my heart ? " was the language of a counter-re- 
monstrance. And it prevailed. " And when he would not 
be persuaded," Luke meekly says, "we ceased, saying, The 
will of the Lord be done ; " concluding that his friend's re- 
solution was divinely prompted. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

JERUSALEM REVISITED. 

A lively picture of the departure of Luke and his com- 
pany is sketched by his pen. His words, " We took up 
our luggage," imply the act of packing it upon the backs 
of beasts of burden ; whilst the clause, " and went up to 
Jerusalem," presents to the imagination a cavalcade of 
grotesque appearance to an European, but made familiar to 
the reader by the prints which often accompany books of 
travels in the East. The distance to Jerusalem being above 
fifty miles, not sooner than the next day towards even 
could they have finished the journey. Arrived before the 
Bethlehem gate, the luggage was unloosed, and the travel- 
lers conducted to their quarters. Luke was once more in 
Jerusalem. Externally all appeared unchanged. There 
was the Temple ; there the palaces of Zion ; here the streets 
with which he was familiar ; surrounding all were the ever- 
lasting hills. But he felt otherwise than he had been wont 
among these scenes. The anticipated pleasure of the visit 
was clouded by the remembrance of the forebodings that 
he had heard expressed by the way. Some of the disciples 
of Csesarea had accompanied the party on the journey. By 
these they were conducted to the house of " Mnason of 
Cyprus, an old disciple," with whom it had been appointed 
that they should lodge. The unusual speciality with which 
their host is described is suggestive. The mention that he 
was of " Cyprus," seems to connect him with the memo- 
ries of Barnabas, and Mary his sister, who, by this time, 



244 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

were most likely deceased. By the term "an old dis- 
ciple," is probably signified an original disciple, — one of the 
converts in the great pentecostal season ; and, therefore, 
one with whom Luke had been acquainted when he had 
formerly resided in Jerusalem. It bespake no small degree 
of courage, knowing the temper of the Jewish people to- 
wards them, to have entertained these servants of Christ. 
And here, on an imperishable page, the name and hospi- 
tality of this ancient Israelite have a memento. 

Under the two opposite aspects of society found here, it 
is pleasant to glance upon the first. Besides the welcome 
received from their venerable host, several of the brethren 
having obtained intelligence of their arrival, hastened to 
embrace them. To the feelings hereby inspired expression 
is given by Luke in the words, " And when we were come 
to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly." Eighteen 
years had well-nigh removed from the city all with whom 
he had been then acquainted. Seated in the host's guest- 
chamber, he would learn that none of the apostles were in 
the city except James ; and to many of his inquiries con- 
cerning individuals he had here known and loved, he 
would receive replies that would send his thoughts, in fol- 
lowing them, either to heaven, or to far distant lands. He 
had departed from this city before any thoughts had been 
entertained of the conversion of Gentiles, irrespective of 
Jewish proselytism. He had been one of those who first 
held the office — never before heard of — that of a Gentile 
prophet. He had welcomed the co-operation in a new field 
of Christian teaching of Barnabas and Paul, and had seen 
how their labours therein had been sanctioned, by himself 
having received, along with fellow-elders at Antioch, a 
divine command to ordain them to an apostleship to the 
Gentile world. With Paul he had been in correspondence 
throughout all his missionary journies ; and he was now by 
his side, a joint-deputy with him from Gentile Churches 



JERUSALEM REVISITED. 245 

to the saints in Jerusalem, and bearing fruits of the 
reality of their mutual brotherhood. After the repose of 
the night, the business of the mission was begun. Luke's 
notes proceed : " The day following, Paul went in with us 
unto James, and all the elders were present." This was a pri- 
vate meeting at the house of James ; its privacy arising from 
danger to be apprehended by a more public advertisement of 
the presence of Paul in the city. " And when he had saluted 
them," — that is,firstpersonally,and then officially, producing 
at the same time the letters from the Churches represented 
by the deputation, — " he declared particularly what things 
God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry." 
This was the third report of the kind that Paul had made 
to the elders in Jerusalem. The first had been when, in 
company with Barnabas, he brought alms from Antioch ; 
and the second, when he came with the embassy from the 
same place, upon the circumcision controversy. Since the 
last of these occasions, the progress made in the conversion 
of Gentiles had been a hundred-fold. He had travelled far 
and wide ; scarcely a place of note between Palestine in the 
south, to Illyricum in the north, having been unvisited ; 
and when he was about to quit his ministry in Europe, he 
could exult, saying, " Now thanks be unto God, who always 
causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Cor. ii. 14). A prac- 
tical illustration of the character of the Gentile converts 
was now placed before James and the elders, being the 
offerings which it was the business of the deputation to 
convey. "And when they had heard Paul's rehearsal," 
and had received from his hands this token of sympathy, 
" they glorified the Lord" (xxi. 20). 

But this bright sunshine was of short duration. Almost 
without a moment's suspension of breath, James intimated 
how well grounded were the fears which had repeatedly 
been expressed concerning the dangers to be apprehended 
for the personal safety of Paul in Jerusalem (xxi. 20-24). 



246 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

It is true, that he spake only with reference to the pre- 
judices of the Jewish Christians ; but this only makes more 
obvious the hostility against Paul of the Jewish mind in 
general. " Many thousands of Jews that believed were so 
zealous for the law," that they suspected him of being an 
apostate, and regarded the freedom from its ceremonials 
which he permitted among his Gentile converts as impious. 
The advice given to Paul by James concerning the 
Nazarite vow could have found no echo in Luke's mind. 
And it seems only to have been set down by him because it 
was the first link in the chain of succeeding incidents. 

Luke had not spent a week in the pleasures derived from 
a renewed intercourse with old friends, and from the acquire- 
ment of new ones, before the forebodings that had been 
uttered throughout the journey to Jerusalem were verified. 

Paul was engaged in the temple fulfilling the vow 
recommended to his observance by James, where he was 
found by some „ of his old enemies, Jews from Ephesus. 
They knew Trophimus of the same place, and having just 
before seen him in company with Paul in the city, they 
concluded that he had gone with him into the temple, 
having passed into a court forbidden to Gentiles. The 
cry of sacrilege ran like that of fire; and, at the time of 
a festival, a very few minutes sufficed to bring together a 
mob heartily disposed to join in wreaking vengeance. 
They now do, as they would have done fourteen years ago, 
had Paul not departed suddenly by divine command. 
Luke writes, " They drew him out of the temple." This 
would have been on the north side of it. And by the 
expression, " they went about to kill him," it is signified, 
that they were in the act of drawing him towards the 
adjoining gate in the east wall of the city, to the spot that 
had witnessed the martyrdom of Stephen. But they were 
arrested ere the gate was reached. Tidings of the riot 
were carried to the Captain of the garrison in Fort Antonia, 



JERUSALEM REVISITED. 247 

(from which a flight of steps conducted to the street), who, 
attended by soldiers and centurions, " ran down unto 
them." Whereupon the mob suspended their blows, " and 
the captain took him, and commanded him to be bound 
with two chains ; " that is, in token that he intended to act 
lawfully towards him, having rescued him from an illegal 
execution. And so was fulfilled the prediction of Agabus 
that he should be bound, being delivered into the hands of 
the Gentiles (xxi. 11). 

The account of his capture, together with the report of 
Paul's noble defence of himself and testimony given for 
Christ, which it had been permitted him to make to the 
" men, brethren, and fathers '" that thronged the streets 
and the stairs, as also of his subsequent treatment in the 
castle, would afterwards be obtained by Luke from his 
own lips (xxi. 30-40, xxii. 1-29). But Luke might have 
had the opportunity to witness the next public scene into 
which his friend was brought. To this scene Paul was 
introduced by the captain, who was as discreet in judgment 
as prompt in action. The castle or tower had been 
erected to restrain the Jews from revolutionary movements 
in the temple ; and to their riotous conduct upon occasions 
the captain would have been accustomed. In the course he 
now adopted, he acted justly towards all the parties 
concerned, and, in the end, he thereby furnished himself 
with another proof of the intemperate conduct of Paul's 
accusers. 

The action of the captain, and his motive for it, are thus 
described by Luke : "On the morrow, because he would 
have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the 
Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the 
chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought 
Paul down and set him before them " (xxii. 30). 

As the hall of the high priest, in which the council was 
held was on Mount Sion, the course taken by the military 



248 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

escort, to avoid attracting a crowd, would have been 
through the gate towards which Paul was yesterday being 
hurried. And passing beside the wall flanking the east and 
the south sides of the temple, a gate would be entered which 
led to the Hill of Sion. It was through that gate that 
Jesus had been conducted by officers of the temple from 
Gethsemane, by the bands of the high priest. 

Paul having been set before the council by the captain 
and his officers, with what a gaze would its members 
regard him ! The character of that gaze may be surmised 
by the gaze that was once set upon Jesus in that same hall, 
and also by the gaze that was afterwards set by the 
council upon Stephen. That gaze, however, did not dis- 
concert the captain's prisoner ; for Luke's description of 
the scene begins with the words, " And Paul earnestly 
beholding the council" (xxiii. 1). Dr Alford says, 
" ' Earnestly beholding ' seems to describe that peculiar 
look connected probably with infirmity of sight." But this 
guess is quite inconsistent with Luke's method of compos- 
ing his narrative. A particular such as this he would only 
note for the reason that it illustrated the incident in hand. 
Several years ago Paul had been acquainted with members 
of this council, and his scrutinous eye would be directed to 
discover whether now any of those might be recognised. 
Moreover, being probably, like many highly intellectually- 
gifted persons, a physiognomist, he would wish to scan the 
temper through the face, and to obtain thereby a perception 
of the attitude of the assembly towards himself. This 
intense glance at his judges is as natural as it was politic. 
The practice of taking such a glance is observed by orators 
upon every important occasion, as this was. And, besides 
all this, that "earnestly beholding" his judges by Paul, 
testified the intrepidity of his own temper, and also his 
confidence in the faithfulness of the Master, for whose 
cause he stood there. 



JERUSALEM REVISITED. 249 

It was soon perceived that no more moderation was to be 
expected from the Sanhedrim than from the mob. Paul had 
uttered only one sentence, when the high priest commanded 
them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Where- 
upon Paul said unto him, " God shall smite thee, thou 
whited sepulchre ; for sittest thou to judge me after the 
law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the 
law." Paul stood there as a prisoner, but he was also a 
prophet. And not from any feeling of personal indigna- 
tion, but as delivering a solemn sentence, divinely prompted 
— a sentence whose fulfilment should by and by be wit- 
nessed by some that heard it pronounced — did he utter 
those words. " And those that stood by said, Eevilest 
thou God's high priest so? And Paul said, I wist not 
that he was the high priest." Paul might well have sup- 
posed that an order like that which had been given had 
not proceeded from the proper president of that august 
assembly. And both Paul's supposition, thus expressed, 
and also the prophetic character of his sentence upon the 
man, are justified by subsequent history. It need hardly 
be said that this was another Ananias than he before whom 
Jesus had been brought. Concerning this Ananias, Jose- 
phus says, that " he had been high priest when Quadratus 
was president of Syria, by whom he was deposed." And 
it does not appear that he was ever restored, but that the 
office was vacant at this time, so that he was only high 
priest nominally, and president of the Sanhedrim accident- 
ally. Concerning the death of this man, Josephus relates, 
that " he was slain [smitten) during an invasion of the city 
by a band of robbers " (Antiq. xx.) This happened about 
six years afterwards. The proceedings of the council, as 
they concerned Paul, were abruptly terminated. This 
exordium, suggested by the survey of its members that 
he had taken, was all the defence which he had the oppor- 
tunity to deliver. " Men and brethren," were his words, 



250 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

" I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of the hope and 
resurrection of the dead I am called in question this day. 
And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between 
the Pharisees and the Sadducees ; and the multitude was 
divided" (xxiii. 6, 7). That was a remarkable session, 
wherein the accused was thus able, from a knowledge of 
its composition, to set the venerable council into a blaze of 
controversy among themselves. Nevertheless, although, 
by the terms of that exordium, the anger of one party was 
seemingly abated towards him, the rage of the other was 
redoubled ; so that " the captain, fearing lest Paul should 
have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers 
to go down and to take him by force from among them " 
(ver. 10). 

And now Luke's admirable picture conducts his friend 
to another scene. " And he" (the captain) " brought him to 
the castle." Here Paul was in durance, but he was beyond 
the reach of his foes. He was in the custody of the only 
person in Jerusalem who had power to protect him. That 
he was not consigned to a dungeon, but to an ordinary 
apartment, may be inferred from what has been seen of 
the considerate conduct of the captain towards him. Never 
did the castle enclose such a captive. During the quiet 
here obtained, Paul pondered his situation. He could not 
fail to have reflected upon those words he had quoted to 
his audience from the stairs of the castle, " Get thee quickly 
out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony 
concerning me." He would, perhaps, have called to mind 
the correspondence that preceded his coming hither — his 
letter to the Romans, wherein he apprised them of his 
intention to visit Italy, after having gone to Jerusalem, and 
wherein he requested them to join him in prayers, " that he 
might be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea" 
(xv. 24-31). He would remember that, upon starting on 
the mission from Corinth, his life had been threatened by 



JER USA LEM RE VISITED. 251 

the laying in wait of Jews. And he would reflect upon 
the several instances in which he had been besought not 
to proceed further upon the journey. And perhaps these 
and similar considerations caused him to question the pro- 
priety of the course he had pursued, seeing it had ter- 
minated so inauspiciously, as it appeared. He had received 
no divine direction to undertake the journey hither, like 
that which sent him, with his colleagues, into Greece, 
although, having taken the step, and when on the journey, 
he professed himself to be "bound in spirit" to execute 
his purpose. And then, with respect to Paul's feelings. 
What these were may be imagined by a reference to what 
had been his conduct in the dark dungeon at Philippi, 
and also by passages contained in the two epistles already 
referred to, and which, as they were the last he had writ- 
ten, expressed his most recent experiences. In both of 
those epistles love pants for language by which to express 
devotion to its object. "Who," he writes, " shall separate 
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or persecu- 
tions, or peril, or sword % " (ix. 35). And to the Corinth- 
ians, " Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, 
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake" (xii. 10). 
And here he had just illustrated his love for Christ by 
fulfilling a ministry for Him in the face of His enemies, 
earnestly and faithfully, after the examples of the apostles 
Peter and John, and the deacon Stephen. Yet how little 
soever he was daunted by the sufferings now endured, his 
mind must have been shaded by a feeling of disappoint- 
ment, in that his arrest seemed to render doubtful his 
hope of reaching Rome. 

Presently all Paul's anxieties were hushed. It was now 
night, the season when, at a short distance from this castle, 
Jesus having been in an agony, angels had ministered unto 
Him. And now, in Paul's extremity, "the Lord stood by 
him" — that is, by a personal interview, as He was seen 



252 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

several times before His ascension by the disciples, and had 
already been seen by Paul himself. " And he said, Be of 
good cheer, Paul." The Master's voice, and His familiar, 
gentle words, fell upon his ear as the soft zephyrs, soothing 
all to peace, peace. "For as thou hast testified of me in Jeru- 
salem " — an expression of approval, and a recognition of His 
servant's zeal, sweetly rekindling the confessor's confidence 
— "so must thou bear witness also at Borne" — an answer 
to the special difficulty of the case. 

Oh ! what wonder, witnessing this intimacy of Christ 
with His servant, at those frequent and impassioned ex- 
pressions of admiration of Him that pervade his writings ! 

And then, in these words of the Master was included a 
message to Paul's companion. How Luke himself inter- 
preted that message will be seen presently. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

LUKE IN C.ESAREA. 

Where was Luke on the morrow after his companion's 
imprisonment? He would certainly have visited him 
early. His business in Jerusalem was now centred in 
the object of his chiefest reverence among men. Having 
followed that object with his sympathies whilst pursuing 
his ministry, how anxiously would he hasten to repair to 
him now ! Knowing the peril to which he was exposed 
yesterday, he would be impatient to afford the solace which 
the presence and converse of a friend can communicate. 
Access to him was easy, by the good-will of the chief 
captain. But Luke had been anticipated. Ah, loving 
friend ! the object of thy quick sympathy had, in the 
interim, been visited by a faster Friend than even, thee ! 
The Lord had stood by him, and said, " Be of good cheer, 
Paul; for as thou hast testified for me in Jerusalem, 
so thou must bear witness also at Rome." And the day 
did not close before another link was added to the chain of 
contingencies that should lead to the fulfilment of His 
word. Another visitor arrived. The Apostle had a 
nephew in Jerusalem ; perhaps pursuing his studies here, 
as his relative had done before. With eager interest he 
had followed the case of his uncle ; and having discovered 
what was the next intended step of his enemies, he 
hastened to apprise him of the intelligence he had obtained. 
In the youth's report Paul instantly recognised a message 
from his divine Master. And he at once requested an 



254 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

officer to introduce his young visitor to the captain. The 
notes of Luke relating the conversations that followed 
hereupon, and the action taken, bespeak his near inter- 
course with the parties. There is the action of the officer, 
and the words with which he introduced the youth to the 
chief captain : " So he took him, and brought him to the 
chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto 
him, and prayed me bring this young man unto thee, who 
hath something to say unto thee." There is the courteous 
reception given to the youth : " And the chief captain took 
him by the hand, and went aside privately, and asked him, 
What is that thou hast to tell me 1 " There is the state- 
ment made by the informant, and the sensible request by 
which it was accompanied : " And he said, The Jews have 
agreed to desire thee, that thou wouldest bring Paul to- 
morrow unto the council, as if they would inquire some- 
what of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto 
them ; for there lie in wait for him more than forty men, 
which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will 
neither eat nor drink till they have killed him : and now 
are they ready, looking for a promise from thee." There 
is the chief captain's caution to the informant upon dis- 
missing him : " So the chief captain bid the young man 
depart, and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou 
hast showed these things unto me" (xxiii. 18-22). The 
plea of the conspirators requesting Paul to be set before 
the council again was plausible, as yesterday he had been 
hindered from proceeding beyond the commencement of his 
speech. Upon succeeding in this plea, the plot contemplated 
an attempt upon his life, somewhere between the steps of 
the castle and the entrance to the high priest's palace, — a 
bold adventure, knowing that the same precaution would 
be taken in conducting him as was taken before. In the 
rapid business that ensued, Luke witnessed the last scene 
which he ever had occasion to describe in Jerusalem. The 



LUKE IN C^ESAREA. 255 

moment was critical, but the captain's tactics were equal 
to the emergency. He cut off all attempts at a negotiation 
on the subject by an instant removal of his prisoner from 
the city. " He called unto him two centurions, saying, 
Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Csesarea, and 
horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, 
at the third hour of the night " (nine o'clock). " And pro- 
vide beasts that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe 
unto Felix the governor" (ver. 23, 24). 

Of the beasts ordered to be provided for Paul, surely one 
was intended for his companion. A hasty salutation given 
by the considerate captain, the stairs descended, the horses 
mounted, an exit would be made through the adjoining gate. 
Few persons being outside the walls at that hour, the nearest 
course was taken to reach the road to be pursued. Thus, 
in less than a week after his arrival, was Paul hurried from 
Jerusalem. Perhaps he had been no longer time here when 
he was hurried from it fourteen years ago. But now he 
goes away never to return. It could have been no common 
danger that Paul had escaped, to have required nearly five 
hundred soldiers to conduct him forth. The conspirators 
were countenanced by most of the priests and elders, and 
had they the opportunity to act, they would have been 
supported in their enterprise by the people generally. And 
the frequency and frenzy with which the Jews were accus- 
tomed to revolt against the government of the Eomans ex- 
plains the captain's precautions. Surrounded by the armed 
host, Paul and his companion rode together during that 
night, musing on their strange situation ; reflecting how it 
differed from expeditions which they had formerly made in 
company ; and comforting themselves in the confidence 
that no less now than then they were moving under the 
guidance of their divine Master. When they reached 
Antipatris, a garrison-town thirty miles distant from 
Csesarea, the infantry were left to return to Jerusalem, 



256 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the horsemen alone forming the guard to the end of the 
journey. 

Arrived at Caesar ea, the cavalcade rode straightway to 
the residence of the governor, to whom the officer en- 
trusted with the errand delivered the chief captain's 
letter, and also presented Paul before him. The letter re- 
lated how he had rescued Paul from the hands of the Jews, 
who would have killed him — how he had brought him be- 
fore their council, but that nothing had been laid to his 
charge worthy of death or of bonds — how, having been told 
that the Jews laid wait for him, he had promptly sent him 
to Felix, and had ordered the accusers to prefer their 
charges before him. The letter having been read, and a 
question put to the prisoner and answered, the governor de- 
cided, " I will hear thee when thine accusers are also 
come." In that letter the name of the chief captain for the 
first time transpires ; and it is a relief, in the midst of 
scenes so sad, to observe the moderation and justice dis- 
covered in the conduct of this agent in the incidents under 
review. It would appear that Claudius Lysias's regret for 
the wrong he had ordered to be inflicted upon Paul, being 
a Roman citizen, had wrought in his mind a patriotic in- 
terest for him ; and his sympathy would be augmented by 
the manliness (worthy, as he would think, of a Eoman) 
exhibited before a factious tribunal by one whose ordinary 
behaviour he had found to be singularly gentle and con- 
ciliatory. This letter is one of several curious documents 
transmitted in the historian's page. It was evidently 
written with an intention to convey a favourable impression 
of Paul's case ; and it as evidently had an important in- 
fluence upon the treatment he received here. It is withal 
composed with skill. It hides, for the writer's own benefit, 
the particulars originating his discovery that Paul was a 
Eoman ; but it sets forth the fact of his being a Roman, as 
a reason for the caution he had exercised in his treatment 



L UKE IN CuSSA RE A . 257 

of him, and also for the transfer of him to the governor 
himself. The whole of Luke's account of this persons 
conduct reflects his esteem for him. But that which 
would give additional emphasis to it was a recognition in 
him of an instrument executing the design of the divine 
Master in the preservation of His servant's life, and sending 
him forth in the direction by Him intended. 

And here succeeds another series of scenes carrying on 
the prophetic chain of Luke's record. A courier was dis- 
patched to Jerusalem citing Paul's principal accusers to re- 
pair before the governor ; and the promptitude with 
which the summons was obeyed manifests how unrelent- 
ing was their animosity against him. " After five days, 
Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders, and 
with a certain orator, Tertullus." And here again the 
quasi high priest and his satellites appear in their instinc- 
tive character. They both detested the Roman govern- 
ment and despised its rulers ; yet, by the mouth of their 
Roman orator, they seek to win the favourable judgment 
of Felix by flattery. Paul being called forth, and Luke 
standing by him in the character of his patronus, Tertullus 
addressed the governor this exordium : " Seeing that by 
thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds 
are done unto this nation by thy providence, we accept it 
always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thank- 
fulness. " Whereupon he urged his charges against Paul, 
declaring that he was a mover of sedition among the 
Jews throughout the world, being a ringleader of the sect 
of the Nazarenes — that he had gone about to profane the 
tc-mple ; and thereafter concluded with a reflection upon 
the conduct of the governor's deputy at Jerusalem (xxiv. 
1-8). This done, the prosecutors from Jerusalem arose and 
testified that " those things were so." 

Paul's defence was unimpassioned. It simply reviewed 
the clauses of his impeachment, refuting them seriatim — 1, 



258 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

By a statement of what his religion really was ; 2. What 
had taken him to Jerusalem • 3. What his conduct had been 
in the temple ; 4. He reminded his accusers that they had 
neglected to bring proper witnesses; and 5. He declared 
that themselves had failed to prove what they affirmed. The 
witnesses that should have been produced were manifestly 
the persons who had arrested him in the temple, inasmuch 
as that his alleged conduct therein was the chief point for 
the consideration of the governor. But besides this defect 
in the prosecution, the governor regarded the absence of 
his deputy, whom they had likewise blamed, with still 
greater jealousy. He therefore deferred his judgment, 
saying, " When Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, 
I will {shall then) know the uttermost of your matter. " But as 
it does not appear that this witness ever came, it is probable 
that Felix was glad to fix the ground of his deferring judgment 
upon that plea. Moreover, to add to the grief of the vener- 
able plaintiffs, he commanded the (not a) centurion to keep 
Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should for- 
bid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. 
Felix was partly prompted, perhaps, to give this direction 
concerning Paul's acquaintance by seeing Luke and other of 
his friends by his side. " The centurion was the commander 
of the horse who had the charge of Paul from Jerusalem " 
(Valpy). So Paul was remitted, with these favourable in- 
structions, to the care of an officer who had already received 
a kindly report of his charge from the lips of the governor's 
deputy at Jerusalem. It was only as a prisoner of state 
that Paul could have been secure from the hands of his 
unscrupulous enemies. 

Such is the first scene in Luke's description of the Lord's 
providence for Paul's protection at Csesarea. His situation 
as a prisoner was here improved. He was now lodged in a 
palace. Having his books, of which he was still a student — 
as every man of intellectual power must be who possesses 



LUKE IN CjESAREA. 259 

opportunities — and with a servant to open his door to every 
visitant, his lot must have been regarded by other prisoners 
as enviable. Almost as well by silence on every topic, ex- 
cept the one immediately before him, does the specialty of 
Luke's plan appear. How interesting to the reader would 
be a glimpse of the Apostle's prison-life at Caesarea ! How 
much is it desired to know what were the principal exer- 
cises of his mind there ; — what had been within the compass 
of his ability to accomplish for the benefit of others ; — what 
messages he sent to the Churches which his indefatigable 
labours had raised ! But, concerning everything of the 
kind, the historian's pen is silent ; and nothing is told 
until the next incident arises illustrating the fulfilment of 
the Lord's declaration, " Thou must bear witness also at 
Rome." 

Now, then, Luke perceived what message was conveyed 
to himself in the words addressed by their Master to Paul 
in Jerusalem. In the declaration, that Paul must " witness 
at Rome," he recognised a direction for the conduct of his 
own steps. "I accepted the engagement," he would say, 
" to accompany my friend thither. And although checked 
in our course, I am assured that, whatever betides, we shall 
go to Rome. I must, therefore, patiently abide the will 
and the time of Him who gave His servant that assurance." 
The business of Luke's companionship with Paul, the Lord's 
prisoner, therefore, may be reckoned from the moment of 
the Apostle's committal to custody here. There was some- 
thing solemn in this suspense. To wait the course of events 
which involved Luke's own position, required much of 
patient faith, especially when to the bodily eye all seemed 
to conflict against the thing hoped for. This suspense, 
likewise, required a firm friendship in the companions on 
either side. But such a friendship was that which subsisted 
between these companions. It was a bright exemplification 
of the new brotherhood established by the gospel. The 



260 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

difference of their nationalities, instead of repelling sym- 
pathy, enhanced it. The Jew, appointed an apostle to Gen- 
tiles, and burning with zeal to fulfil his mission, clung to 
the Gentile, whose whole intelligence and abilities had been 
so steadily devoted to the service of his Lord. Nor could 
the Gentile allow a limit to his gratitude to the Jew who 
had sacrificed everything that is reckoned precious that he 
might accomplish that ministry. To a man of Paul's tem- 
perament, the monotony of a prison-life must have been 
excessively irksome. Benign, therefore, was the Provi- 
dence that supplied him at that season with the services of 
a companion who was so entirely adapted to be his com- 
forter. Then were illustrated those words, " I was in prison 
and ye visited me." And who may tell the solace afforded 
by the attendance of such a visitor upon such a prisoner ! 
With what reverence would the object of sympathy be 
approached ! And by the prisoner, how wistfully would 
the known footsteps be expected ! What music was in the 
familiar voice of the visitor ! What comfort in his varied 
communications ! Who has not been favoured to behold 
the eye sparkle upon the approach of a friend, and the face 
thereupon lighted up with an indescribable vivacity ? The 
proverb says, ' As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharp- 
eneth the countenance of his friend :" — his presence some- 
times beatifies it. 

Not Silas, not Timothy, would have been so well adapted 
for the Apostle's companion now. These were more con- 
sistently employed in their usual work of evangelisation. 
But Luke had not been an itinerant ; and both his habits 
and his advanced age rendered an accommodation to the 
providential requirements more easy to him than to them. 
Henceforward, the constant companion of Paul, excepting 
in sharing his bonds, Luke would be the principal medium 
of the Apostle's communication with the outer world. Now 
is more fully seen the terms upon which these eminent 



LUKE IN C^ESAREA. 261 

servants of Christ had mutually stood throughout their 
acquaintance and correspondence. In the instance of the 
Apostle's friendship with our Evangelist is a grandeur that 
sets it above the most eminent examples thereof in history. 
Before his conversion, it had been impossible that Paul 
should have formed such a friendship : his nationality 
would not have permitted it. As a Jew, he partook of the 
pride and bigotry that induced a scorn of the Gentile, any 
contact with whom would have been regarded as a defile- 
ment. And although Luke was a proselyte to the Jewish 
worship, he would have been met by a Hebrew of Hebrews 
only at the gate. Equally adverse to such a friendship was 
Paul's natural temperament. Paul possessed a mighty 
will. Courageous and firm of purpose, he courted enterprise. 
He felt himself capable of whatever he proposed, surmount- 
ing everything, as a swimmer the waves before him. In 
contending for the faith, he gloried in the strife, as an 
athlete rejoiced in the games. With such a temper it 
might be thought that he had never been capable of a 
strong affinity with a person of Luke's disposition. Luke 
was calm and unimpassioned. Thoughtful and studious, 
convictions were received by his mind calmly, and their 
dictates were followed with steady step. Avoiding itiner- 
ancy, he preferred a limited sphere wherein to exercise his 
quiet ministry. Passages are found which illustrate the 
difference of their dispositions before the period of their 
friendship. When, by the persecution by Paul and his 
party, the disciples were scattered abroad, Luke, fol- 
lowing the prudential advice of our Lord, retired from 
Jerusalem, and travelled as far as Antioch. But when 
Paul, some years after his conversion, revisited Jerusalem, 
although his life was threatened by his old associates of the 
Sandhedrim, he boldly preached in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, until the disciples snatched him away to Csesarea, 
and from thence seat him back to Tarsus. How does this 



62 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

conduct of the Apostle recall the case of the boldness where- 
with Luther, in the fifteenth century, faced the Diet of 
"Worms, and also his rescue from the designs of that council 
by his disciple the Duke of Saxony. A similar correspond- 
ence is found in the celebrated friendship of Luther and 
Melancthon with this between Paul and Luke. In each of 
these examples of friendship, the sanguine and the 
phlegmatic coalesced by the force of an admiration for quali- 
ties which, not being possessed by the individual himself, 
he nevertheless admired. And in both of these examples 
there existed, besides, the influential motive of a mutual 
pursuit. The object of the Apostle commissioned to 
gather Gentiles, and that of the Gentile Evangelist, was 
one. To promote a revival of spiritual religion was alike 
the object of the vehement Luther and the gentle Melanc- 
thon. And the inspiration impelling the conduct of all 
these friends was the same. The love of Christ constrained 
them. Paul's appreciation of Luke's character is ex- 
pressed in an encomium stronger than has ever been uttered 
(2 Cor. viii. 23). Luther's emphatic language concerning 
his friend, addressed to Eeuchlin, was : " Our friend Philip 
Melancthon, the extraordinary man who excels other men 
in almost every quality, and who I so much love and ad- 
mire." On the other side, Luke's admiration of Paul's 
character is shown in an appropriation of half his second 
book to an account of the ministry of his friend, and also 
in a companionship with him in his protracted imprison- 
ments ; whilst Melancthon's admiration of Luther was 
illustrated by numerous publications in justification and in 
aid of his labours, and also shone forth in the fine oration 
which he delivered upon the event of the Eeformer's death. 
Surely, the alliances of those valiant men with friends so 
admirably qualified to hold up their hands, to counsel them 
in their enterprises, and to solace them in their dangers and 
discouragements, were links in the providential chain by 



LUKE IN CJESAREA. 263 

which, in their respective ministries, they were conducted. 
The duration of those remarkable friendships was in each 
case nearly the same, namely, about a quarter of a century. 
Friendship is always charming ■ but Christian friendship 
is a rivulet flowing from high heaven, beautifying and re- 
freshing the earth. 

In walking about Caesarea, Luke beheld a city different 
from all others in which he had heretofore resided. The 
buildings were comparatively new, the city having chiefly 
been built by Herod the Great, and all in a substantial 
style. Here were a theatre, and temples, and statues, with 
all the gear of idolatry, as in cities distant from Palestine. 
Here the Roman governors lived in their own element. 
A great military garrison, consisting of Italian soldiers, 
reserved for exigencies often occurring, gave a martial 
aspect to the place. Commerce also flourished by the 
attraction of a commodious harbour, obtained by the con- 
struction of a mighty breakwater. Here, therefore, as in 
all such places, the money-seeking Jews were found in 
numbers ; but the heathen population exceeded them. 

During his detention here, Luke became accustomed to 
the associations peculiar to a maritime port. Often would 
his anxious eye glance across the expanse towards the land 
he sought to visit, and then would arise the wish that soon 
the summons he awaited might be given which should 
enable him to embark. In the meantime, besides his 
almost daily fellowship with his friend in bonds, there were 
fellowships to be cherished and enjoyed in the city. Philip 
and his daughters would introduce him to several estimable 
friendships. If he had not already obtained them, he 
might now have secured those exact particulars concerning 
Cornelius, a centurion belonging to the garrison here, which 
form such an interesting picture in an earlier chapter of his 
narrative. Among the Christian community here, his own 
person and ministry would excite a peculiar interest. His 



264 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

origin as a Cyrenian, his profession as a physician, his ex- 
perience as an evangelist, his position as a historian of the 
Lord's life, and his presence now in Csesarea as a comforter 
of the imprisoned Apostle, would all concur to cause him to 
be regarded as no ordinary visitor among them. Perhaps, 
as in other places where he had resided, he might some- 
times have exercised his ministry by relating facts, both 
those obtained several years ago in Jerusalem and those 
which concerned the progress of the gospel in Asia and in 
Greece. Some writers have supposed that he occupied 
himself here in composing his Gospel. But that this was 
not the case has been shown in a previous chapter, devoted 
to the consideration of the time and place of its publication. 

Not to write his Gospel, which had been issued eight or 
nine years before this period, but to witness another step 
in the history of Paul's ministry, was Luke conducted 
hither ; and also thereafter to write a section of his second 
treatise, whereby the Church of Christ is enriched with a 
series of sketches of surpassing interest and incalculable 
value (chaps, xxiv., xxv., xxvi.) It had been revealed con- 
cerning Paul to the prophet Ananias at Damascus, " He 
is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the 
Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel/' How he 
had fulfilled this prophetic word among Gentiles appears in 
many chapters of Luke's narrative. How he fulfilled it 
before the children of Israel was seen in his carefulness to 
begin his ministry in every place at the synagogue. How 
he fulfilled it in Jerusalem has just been noticed ■ and now 
it obtains a fulfilment in the third particular at Csesarea. 

In the class of incidents which Luke should here de- 
scribe, he possessed a great theme, and worthily did he 
execute it. On the one hand, here were rulers and princes 
seated on thrones of judgment, surrounded by their retinues 
of courtiers ; and on the other, the Lord's Apostle, a 
prisoner before them. Never before did those rulers look 



LUKE IN CJSSAREA. 265 

upon such a prisoner. He discovered no fear. There was 
no hesitation in his speech. Candour and truthfulness 
hallowed every word he uttered. He felt that he was there 
for another purpose besides the parrying the attacks of his 
enemies ; that he had a lesson to read to his judges, a 
message to witness for Him for whose cause he testified 
there as everywhere. And admirably is all this represented 
in Luke's page. The prisoner appears with the dignity of 
a prophet. Courts are gathered to listen to his testimony. 
The decision of the judge is deferred to give an opportunity 
for a succession of auditors. And the scene moves on, 
only to consummate a divine purpose. 

Of the four appearances of Paul before the tribunal of 
the governor at Csesarea, the first has been noticed. His 
second public appearance was before the same magistrate. 
The former appearance had been judicial, but this one 
seems to have been commanded for the gratification of the 
governor's wife. Antonius Felix had been Procurator of 
Judea five or six years, and being married to a Jewess, he 
had become familiar with the peculiarities of those he 
governed. By the frequent riotings which he was called to 
suppress, he acquired a character for severity ; and by the 
testimony of Tacitus, he was, besides, mean and profligate. 
Drusilla, whom he had taken for his wife, was a princess, 
the daughter of King Herod Agrippa L, and so sister of 
Herod Agrippa II. She had been married to Azizus, king 
of Emesa, from whom Felix seduced her. That characters 
such as these should have desired to inquire concerning 
" the faith of Christ," shows how much public attention 
had been moved towards the subject, and also with what 
curiosity the person of Paul was regarded. They had now 
the opportunity to hear the gospel expounded by the lips 
of its most notable preacher, and they embrace it. The 
courtiers and officers standing around, Paul was conducted 
to his station. The object of the summons was courteously 



266 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

explained to him by Felix. And. anon, the preacher com- 
posed himself into his usual attitude for public speaking. 
He was acquainted with the character of the individuals 
that occupied the thrones. The terms of his oration are 
not reported at length. But it is told that he did not con- 
clude it until, like the Baptist before a grandsire of the 
princess here seated, he had addressed them on the special 
evils of their lives : " He reasoned of righteousness, 
temperance, and judgment to come." And it is likewise 
told what were the effects of this unexpected application 
of truth to their consciences : " Felix trembled." What 
solemnity must have reigned, at that moment, through- 
out the hall of judgment. And when Felix said, " Go 
thy way for this time ; when I have a more convenient 
season I will call for thee," with what reverence must the 
company have looked upon the heroic preacher, as he was 
thereupon conducted from their presence. Perhaps some 
of the auditors were permanently affected by what they 
had seen and heard, and led to make inquiries after the 
new life of the gospel. 

The third appearance of Paul in the hall of judgment 
occurred about eighteen months afterwards, and was occa- 
sioned by the accession of a new governor. This was Por- 
cius Festus, who is represented by Josephus as a just as 
well as an active magistrate. Three days after his arrival, 
he repaired to Jerusalem. Paul was not forgotten there. A 
new high priest, Ishmael, had been recently appointed. His 
enemies "instantly informed against him, and besought the 
governor, and desired favour against him that he would send 
for him to Jerusalem." Festus had of course, upon entering 
his office, received a report concerning him, and also a re- 
presentation of the earnestness with which he was pursued 
by the applicants. And his reply was based upon his 
knowledge thereof. Instead of sending for him to come to 
Jerusalem, his accusers were directed to accompany himself 



LUKE IN CJ1SAREA. 267 

to Caesarea, and prosecute their cause before him there. 
They did so. And the day after their arrival, the governor 
having commanded Paul to be brought before his judg- 
ment-seat, " they laid many and grievous complaints 
against him." As upon the former hearing of his case, so 
now Paul simply repelled their charges, declaring, " Neither 
against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, 
nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all." 
Again they had come unfurnished with proof. And again, 
therefore, judgment was deferred. Failing in their suit, 
they make another attempt to get him lured into the road 
to Jerusalem, " intending," it is said, " to lay wait for 
him in the way, to kill him." So, they were provided with 
assassins, though not with witnesses. Festus, unaware of 
their treacherous intent, and willing to do the Jews a 
pleasure, put the question to Paul, " Wilt thou go to Jeru- 
salem to be judged of them there before me 1 " — that is, it was 
proposed that his accusers should judge him,, and that Festus 
should witness their proceedings. But Paul, knowing their 
duplicity, and having an eye to his Master's declaration, 
did not hesitate to reply, " I stand at Caesar's judgment- 
seat, where I ought to be judged ; to the Jews have I 
done no wrong, as thou very well know est. For if I be 
an offender, or have committed anything worthy of death, 
I refuse not to die ; but if there be none of these things 
whereof thou accuse me, no man may deliver me unto 
them." " I stand at Caesar's judgment-seat," — that is, " I 
object to the transference of my case to another court than 
this : and as you. decline to decide it, / appeal unto Cmsar." 
" Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, an- 
swered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar ? unto Caesar 
shalt thou go" (xxv. 1-12). By this decision his enemies 
were effectually foiled, and a step was gained towards 
Paul's transit to Eome — the Lord overruling. 
The fourth and last appearance of Paul before the rulers 



268 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

at Caesarea was the most remarkable of all. Ere steps had 
been taken for his transit to Eome, another incident arose 
to complete the gradation of his auditors. Luke's estimate 
of this incident is manifest in the extent of his description 
of it. His account of the preceding appearances occupied 
each only a few verses, but this extends over the chief part of 
the twenty-fifth chapter and the whole of the twenty-sixth. 
The occasion of this arose from the arrival of King Herod 
Agrippa II. on a visit to welcome Festus to his government. 
This Herod Agrippa was seventeen years old when his father 
died, a.d. 44, so, reckoning this visit to Festus to have taken 
place A.D. 60, he was now thirty-three years of age. Among 
other matters concerning which Festus conferred with his 
royal visitor was his custody of Paul. Agrippa having the 
charge of the temple committed to him by the Emperor, 
was conversant with the religious aspect of the case against 
Paul. It was, therefore, natural that Festus should have 
embraced the opportunity to submit the case to the judg- 
ment of the king. Agrippa having been likewise well 
aware of the existence of Christians, as followers of Jesus 
the Crucified, curiosity prompting him to see and to hear a 
statement from the lips of one of the most noted of them, 
he said to his guest, " I would also wish to hear the man 
myself." On the morrow, therefore, the king, accompanied 
by the Princess Bernice, repaired " with great pomp " to 
the hall of judgment. Magnificence was a characteristic of 
the Herods. The pride of his father, when, arrayed in royal 
apparel, he made an oration in the theatre, and thereupon 
received the homage of a god, and the judgment which 
then befell him, are recorded in a former chapter. Bernice 
was the daughter of that same Herod Agrippa, and the 
sister of Drusilla. She had been married to her uncle, 
Herod, king of Chalcis, after whose death she lived, on 
scandalous terms, with her brother, this second Herod 
Agrippa. 



L UKE IN CjESA RE A . 269 

The company having arrived, consisting, besides these 
persons, of the chief captains of the garrison, and the prin- 
cipal men of the city, " Paul was brought forth." According 
to Eoman custom, he would have been attended, during 
the audience, by " friends, who, as advocates, assisted the 
accused by their presence and counsel" (Adam's " Eoman 
Antiquities"). Who these friends were it is easy to conclude. 
One of them would have been Aristarchus, sent to be his 
companion by the Macedonian Churches, and the other 
would have been Luke. Here, therefore, were two wit- 
nesses of that interesting scene, having an intimate relation 
with the prisoner, and with the cause on whose account he 
was " brought forth." The court having been opened by a 
brief address, made by Festus, explaining the object of the 
present audience, Agrippa invited Paul, saying, " Thou art 
permitted to speak for thyself." How gratefully is felt to 
be the advantage of Luke's presence now. Following his 
eye, his pen describes the action of the Apostle : " Then 
Paul stretched forth his hand." There is given the concili- 
ating exordium, beseeching to be heard " patiently." Then 
proceeds the oration, in the delivery of which the speaker, 
sensible of an overruling Hand, rises up to the greatness of 
the occasion. The oration, which was spoken perhaps in 
Greek, was framed to fulfil the design of a testimony 
delivered before a king, and also to meet the king's desire 
for information. It consisted of an argument wherein the 
speaker explained that his education, his prejudices, and 
his zeal, shown as an agent of the Sanhedrim, to prosecute 
the disciples, had all been opposed to the probability of his 
ever accepting the claims of Jesus ; that he had come to a 
knowledge that Jesus was the Christ of the prophets, having 
received an indubitable proof of His resurrection by having 
seen the same Jesus, who had also spoken to Him, and who 
had appointed him to the ministry which he had henceforth 
pursued, " witnessing both to small and great, saying none 



270 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

other things than those which the prophets and Moses did 
say should come ; that Christ should suffer, that He should 
be the first that should rise from the dead, and should 
show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." 

Here the presence of the watchful companion is per- 
ceived. He relates that at the word " Gentiles" Festus 
hastily interrupted the speaker. Festus had thought, and 
had spoken, of Paul's case as if it had related to the Jewish 
religion alone. He had conceived that he was an enthu- 
siast persecuted on account of some point of controversy. 
He knew what was meant when he spoke of Moses and the 
prophets. He was also aware that Paul occupied himself 
much in reading. But he had not thought that Gentiles 
were concerned in the subject. Very natural, therefore, 
was his exclamation, " Paul ! thou art beside thyself; much 
learning hath made thee mad ! " And well is Luke's sur- 
prise and indignation at this turn in the speech denoted by 
his observation, that Festus said this with a loud voice. 
Striking also is Luke's report of the masterly adroitness 
with which the interruption was turned to the advantage 
of the argument with Agrippa. Now the discourse became 
personal. Paul rejoined, " I am not mad, most noble 
Festus ; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness." 
And turning from, the Gentile, he appealed to the observer 
of the law, "For the king knoweth these things, before 
whom I speak freely; for I am persuaded that none of 
these things are hid from him." And again, and still more 
pointedly, "King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets'? I 
know that thou believest." This was the climax; the 
argument reached the royal conscience, and produced the 
sentiment that compelled the admission, "Paul, almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." In a certain style 
of criticism, this remarkable admission made by the king 
is represented as only signifying, " Lightly (with small 
trouble) art thou persuading thyself that thou canst make 



LUKE IN CMS AREA. 271 

me a Christian ; or / am not so easily to be made a Christian " 
(Dr Alford). Paul's noble answer to the king, contained 
in the next verse, furnishes an ample refutation of this 
insipid gloss. 

That was a triumphant moment for this servant of 
Christ. Here was illustrated that sentence of Menander, 
" It is the character of the speaker, and not his words only, 
that persuades to a confidence in what he says." In Paul's 
were combined, and upon this occasion illustriously ex- 
hibited, zeal and moderation, candour and courteousness, 
dignity and benevolence. His character and discourse were 
in beauteous harmony. And the effect upon his audience 
was corresponding. It was the voice of all that had sat 
with the governor and the king, after they had risen up 
and were gone out, " This man doeth nothing worthy of 
death or of bonds," — a declaration similar to that of Pilate 
in the case of Jesus, " Behold I have examined him before 
you ; I have found no fault in this man touching those 
things whereof ye accuse him" (Luke xxiii. 14). But in this 
case no other judgment is pronounced than that expressed 
by Agrippa to Festus, " This man might have been set at 
liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar." The true im- 
port of this reserve in the king's judgment was known to 
Paul and his companions. The Apostle had now finished 
his ministry in Csesarea. Rulers and princes had listened 
to his testimony. The divine design for which he had 
been brought here was fulfilled. It now remained that 
that word spoken to him at Jerusalem should likewise 
receive an accomplishment, " So must thou bear witness 
also at Rome." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 

After two years' detention in Csesarea, the information 
that at length orders had been given by Festus for the 
transfer of Paul to Rome, would have been received by 
Luke with much gratification. Hasty adieus would be made 
to the brethren in the city, and gladly would he join his 
friend at the time and place appointed for their meeting. 
His account of the embarkation and the adventures that 
succeeded, forms a new and stirring picture, occupying the 
twenty-seventh and a part of the twenty-eighth chapter of 
his narrative. In no part of his writings does Luke's own 
personality so continuously appear as here. He is combined 
with the circumstances related in those chapters twenty- 
seven times, by the pronoun us or we. 

Paul was now transferred to the custody of Julius, a 
centurion of the Augustan band, or the " Emperor's own." 
The conduct of this gentleman, which was uniformly 
respectful and considerate towards Paul, it may be presumed 
was, at the outset, influenced by the report he had received 
concerning his prisoner from the centurion at the palace, 
who, besides his own favourable impressions concerning 
him, would be likely to relate to him the circumstances 
under which Paul became a prisoner, and his exculpation 
from fault by the governors and the king. A passage was 
engaged for the centurion's party — which included other 
prisoners, with soldiers for guards — in a ship whose destina- 
tion was Adramyttium, a city of Mysia. This was about 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 273 

the end of August or beginning of September a.d. 61. It 
was late in the season, but not too late to hope to reach Italy 
before the coming of the equinoctial winds. Entering into 
the ship, Luke writes, " we launched," — that is, from the 
harbour into the sea, — " meaning to sail by the coasts of 
Asia." The weather, therefore, was isuch as to require 
cautious sailing. Now again Luke is embarked on the 
sea, and sailing in the direction from whence, in company 
with the Apostle, he had formerly come. By the notice, 
" Aristarchus of Thessalonica being with us," is signified 
that, along with Luke, he was conveyed to Eome as Paul's 
advocate and his witness for him in an appearance before 
the court there, according to the privilege permitted by 
Roman law in every suit. Aristarchus is first noticed in 
history as Paul's companion in travel, when, along with 
Gaius, he was apprehended in the disturbance made by the 
craftsmen at Ephesus (Acts xix. 29). Afterwards, along 
with Gaius, he was at Philippi with the company that 
went before Paul and Luke to Troas (xx. 4). He was sent 
by the Thessalonians to Caesarea, to sustain the Apostle in 
his present affliction. Luke does not intimate that he was 
a state prisoner ; neither as a Macedonian, would he have 
been remitted to Rome by the judicature of Palestine. 
. That Paul's denomination of him, " my fellow-prisoner," is 
figurative (Col. iv. 10), is seen by that other designation of 
him, "my fellow-labourer" (Philem. 24). 

Sidon having been reached on the morrow, Luke says, 
" Julius, kindly behaving towards Paul, gave him liberty 
to go unto his friends to refresh himself." So Paul had 
friends at Sidon. Upon the former voyage he had been 
" refreshed *' by his friends in the sister city of Tyre. He 
was then at liberty ; and had been warned by them not to 
proceed to Jerusalem. How significant is the expression 
" refresh himself" of the pleasure derived by the 
confessor from "this brief interview with hospitable 

S 



274 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

friends." He had requested the prayers of the Eomans, 
" that he might come to them, and with them be refreshed" 
— that is, with the comfort of Christian fellowship (Eom. 
xv. 32). But lower objects for Paul's going ashore here 
have been proposed. One's eyes seem at fault upon read- 
ing, in a modern commentary, " ' To refresh himself with his 
friends' was 'perhaps to obtain that outfit for the voyage which, on 
account of the official precision of his custody at Coesarea, he 
would not there be provided with" (Dr Alford). Not at all 
likely is it that, having been treated with courtesy by his 
keepers, and declared guiltless by his judges, Paul would 
have been made to wear a criminal's costume. Jesus wore 
his own garment when He was led to Calvary ; and it was 
a decent one, or the soldiers had not coveted it. And 
another commentary proffers this dilution, " Paul stayed a 
night on shore } probably having experienced sea-sickness" 
(Webster and Wilkinson). Could it have been likely that 
the commander would have brought his ship into port to 
accommodate a prisoner, and especially for either of these 
reasons ? That Paul went on shore at Sidon, that he might 
be refreshed by a gift of apparel from his friends there, or 
that he might have an opportunity to repair to a bazaar to 
purchase a new outfit ; or else, according to the other guess, 
that he required and obtained a respite on land on account 
of sea-sickness, are alike situations so un spiritual as to be alto- 
gether inconsistent with the character of Luke's writings. 

The narrative continues, " We sailed under Cyprus, 
because the winds were contrary." Upon the occasion of 
coming from Asia, favoured by the winds, the ship took the 
outer side of that island ; now the inner passage was taken. 
The coasts of Cilicia andPamphylia being passed, "We came 
to Myra in Lycia." On the former voyage they changed ships 
at Patara, a few miles distant on the same coast. Myra was 
the metropolis of the province. It stood on a high hill, a 
considerable distance from the shore. As the ship in 



L UKE 'S VOYA GE TO IT A L Y. 275 

which they had come hither was bound only to Adramyt- 
tium, a city of Mysia, quite out of their route, and another 
ship being found in the port whose destination was Italy, 
the centurion transferred his charge to the latter. This 
seems to have been a larger ship than the former one, 
having a heavy freight, and many more passengers on 
board. If the sailing had been slow before, it became 
much more tedious now ; whilst the winds, which had been 
contrary, became besides of baffling strength. The distance 
made from Myra to the extreme length of the coast of Asia, 
to be followed, was a hundred and fifty miles, which, with a 
fair wind, might have been accomplished in a day and a 
night. Whereas, Luke says, "And when we had sailed slowly 
many days, and hardly were come opposite Cnidus, the 
wind not suffering us to reach the harbour, we sailed under 
Crete." Cnidus, now k Crio, is a peninsula with a harbour on 
each side as at Corinth ; that on the east being very 
commodious, and offering a fine station for ships in which 
to lay up for the winter. From here, therefore, taking the 
proper course towards Italy, they crossed over to Crete (now 
Candia), a narrow island forming a sort of natural break- 
water along the front of the iEgean sea, being a hundred and 
sixty miles in length, and varying from seven to fifty miles 
in breadth. Still the weather increased in tempestuous- 
ness. And with difficulty clearing Salmone, on the eastern 
cape of the island, they came to a harbour called the Fair 
Havens. Here the ship was brought to an anchor, and a 
brief respite was obtained from the contest with the elements. 
Luke had another object in accompanying Paul than what 
obviously appeared. He came for materials whereby to 
continue his narrative. And, as a poet catches suggestions 
for his verse, and a painter pencils objects and scenes for 
studies in his sketch-book, so Luke took the opportunity to 
commit to his tablet the particulars of the voyage. His 
treatment of this part of his narrative is equally exact with 



276 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

the rest of it. It would be difficult to find, in all antiquity, 
an account of a voyage wherein is given a more careful re- 
gister of the points from whence the wind blew, and the 
corresponding results and manoeuvres in navigating the 
ship, than in Luke's page. A writer who has made this 
account the subject of a distinct and elaborate investigation, 
aided by personal researches in the Mediterranean, has 
said : " St Luke exhibits here the most perfect command of 
nautical terms, and gives the utmost precision to his 
language by selecting the most appropriate." But, seeming 
to have slight acquaintance with Luke except on shipboard, 
the writer herefrom concludes that Luke was a Roman 
naval officer* This is a curious opinion; but it has its 
match in the case of the exhaustless Shakespeare, whose 
technical exactness, on certain subjects, has led to the 
arguing of conclusions by writers concerning his having had 
other pursuits besides that of a dramatist. One writer 
has set forth " Shakespeare's knowledge of medicine ; " f 
another, "Shakespeare a lawyer;" J another, "Shakes- 
peare's legal acquirements considered;" § another, " Shakes- 
peare's knowledge and use of the Bible ; " || another, 
" Shakespeare a Roman Catholic." IT And so, arguing 
from the play of " The Tempest," some writer may by 
and by publish a treatise entitled, " Shakespeare a Naval 
Officer" 

Soon Luke was committed to another series of observa- 
tions. Although the centurion and the officers of the ship 
were warned by Paul of the danger to be apprehended by 
quitting this harbour, yet, abetted by the most part of the 



* James Smith of Jordan Hill. f J. C. Bucknell. 

+ W. L. Rush. § John Lord Campbell. || Dr Wordsworth. 

^1 Charles Butler, in his " Memoirs of English Catholics ; " also in 
the Rambler, No. 7, published in Dublin, 1854 ; and in the Edinburgh 
Review, Jan. 1866. 



_ 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 277 

passengers, they resolved to attempt to gain the more com- 
modious port of Phenice, situated about fifty miles farther 
on the same side of the island. Tempted by a softly-blow- 
ing wind, the venture was made. But the prospect of en- 
tering that port, or any other, was presently lost. 

Suddenly the wind veered from south to north, bringing 
in an instant a hurricane, called by Luke Euroclydon, better 
known by the name of a typhoon. From this moment suc- 
ceeded a storm furious and protracted. Immediately the 
ship discovered signs of weakness. All the tactics usual to 
such a condition were resorted to ; and very skilful was the 
management of the vessel, so far as it was possible to exer- 
cise any control over its security and its course. All hands, 
including Luke himself, were put into requisition, — now in 
easing the ship, by casting heavy objects overboard ; and 
anon, in relays, for working at the pumps. Eleven days 
had passed since quitting the haven ; and for many of those 
days neither sun nor stars having appeared, whereby to 
make the needful observations, despondency prevailed. 
"All hope," wrote Luke, "that we should be saved was 
taken away." His language expressed the fear of himself 
and of his companions that they were threatened with a 
final arrest. All Paul's anxieties concerned his reaching 
Pome. On no occasion, perhaps, had Luke observed upon 
the countenance of his friend more evident marks of per- 
plexity. The fury of the elements was more dreaded than 
had been the opposition of men. The prospect had become 
dark indeed ; the peril was imminent. The wind moaned 
around ; the restless waves were crested with foam ; the 
ship laboured over the billows, its timbers creaking at 
every heave. Wearied with anxiety and fatigue, but having 
no dread of death, Paul retired to his berth, and sunk in 
slumber. Sleep, sweet and peaceful, succeeded. He arose 
refreshed ; he glanced with composure upon the big waves ; 
his countenance was placid — his appearance dignified. And 



278 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

presently the cause of his confident bearing was revealed. 
Inviting the attention of officers and others, Paul stood 
forth in their midst, and, with the majesty of a prophet, 
said, "Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not 
have sailed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and 
loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer ; for there 
shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. 
For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose 
I am, and whom I serve, saying, 'Fear not, Pad, thou must 
be brought before Caesar ; and lo ! God hath given thee all 
them that sail with thee.' Wherefore, sirs, be of good 
cheer ; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was 
told me. Howbeit, we must be cast upon a certain island." 
His Master's watchful eye was following him, and again, in 
his extremity, had appeared for his solace. The words, " I 
believe God, even as it was told me," expressed the prin- 
ciple inspiring his confidence. To none could the intelli- 
gence conveyed in this address have come with such welcome 
as to Luke and Aristarchus. The assurance that they should 
go to Rome, despite all obstacles, shipwreck included, as it 
inspired the speaker, imparted also new life to these. For 
Luke the announcement had an interest herein peculiar to 
himself, inasmuch as that it furnished another prophetic 
link for his page. 

For a fortnight had the ship been driven about the 
widest part of the Mediterranean ; sometimes approaching 
Cyrenaica, near whose coasts lay the dreaded Syrtes, or quick- 
sands ; when at length, after the fourteenth day, at mid- 
night, the seamen keeping watch conceived, either by the 
fragrant smell wafted from the land, or by the sound of 
breakers, or by both, " that they drew near to some coun- 
try." At the cry of " Land ! land ! " all were instantly 
alert, ready for every effort to secure their lives. Anchors 
were cast out to save the ship from a sudden shock. Amidst 
the confusion of the impending wreck, with an intrepidity 



L UKE >S VO YA GE TO ITAL Y. 279 

inspired by faith, Paul again stood forth, and gave direc- 
tions that none should be allowed prematurely to leave the 
ship. And, in prospect of their struggles, he besought 
them to take food, declaring, " For there shall not fall a 
hair from the head of any of you ; " and himself taking 
food in his hands, gave thanks to God, in the presence of 
them all, and thereafter began to eat. His example was 
followed ; and all having likewise taken food, they be- 
came, like himself, " of good cheer." And now all hands 
were directed to cast the remaining freight overboard, in 
order still further to lighten the ship, and so to mitigate 
the concussion. 

Throughout those scenes how unlike was Paul to a 
prisoner ! Perhaps he was the only Jew in the ship. And 
his conduct and speech might have been regarded by the 
Gentile voyagers as some mystic phases of the Jewish 
religion, had he not for partners in faith his companions, 
Luke and Aristarchus, who were Gentiles. In any case, 
God gave him their confidence ; and now, according to the 
prophetic word, " He gave him their lives." Preparations 
were made for gaining the shore. The anchors were taken 
up, the rudder-bands were loosed, the mainsail was hoisted 
to the wind, and the ship was made to run aground. At 
once it became a wreck ; and of the two hundred and 
seventy-six souls composing its living freight, some of them 
swimming, and some clinging to boards and broken pieces 
of the ship, "they escaped all safe to land!" In the joy 
common to the voyagers upon their deliverance from 
threatened destruction, Paul and his company fully shared. 
But these had, besides, other motives for gratification. 
Paul's confession, made before many witnesses, of belief in 
the word of God which had been communicated to him, 
was now justified ; and their deliverance, taken as a proof 
of the Divine faithfulness, was a source of delight beyond 
that of the preservation of their lives. They rejoiced in 



280 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the deliverance as affording a pledge that, although delayed 
in their progress thither, they were still on their way 
towards Rome. With respect to Luke himself, his pleasure 
at this moment, and the ground of it, are revealed by his 
narrative of the perils through which they had passed. 
The length of this episode, compared with some others of 
his narrative, whilst it attests his own feelings upon the 
deliverance, discovers likewise a special reason for his 
gratification. The whole texture of it, so impressively illus- 
trative of the plan of his book, reflects his exultation in 
riveting another link to his prophetic record. And the 
story, moreover, reflects an additional illustration of his 
character. It shows his collededness. Found in a novel 
situation, amidst scenes of confusion, and almost of distrac- 
tion, by reason of the great number of persons that thronged 
the ship, yet how conspicuously does it manifest his equani- 
mity. And it shows his perseverance. He did not neglect 
his vocation; but, notwithstanding the many inconveniences, 
and their being so long protracted, he continued to secure 
notes of the voyage, composed as carefully as any other 
parts of his history. 

That the island upon which they were cast, called by 
Luke Melita, was Malta, the proofs which sundry writers 
have adduced render certain. It is the only place now or 
ever under the British crown which either Luke or Paul 
ever visited. The island is about sixty miles in circumfer- 
ence. St Paul's Bay, as the place is now called, into which 
the ship was driven, is in the north-east end of the island. 
Of the several grottoes in the rocky coast, after some cen- 
turies, one of them, of course, was selected, by very religi- 
ous people, for the cave into which Paul resorted, and therein 
has been erected a chapel dedicated to the Apostle's name. 

Luke's notes relate the hospitality with which they were 
received by the natives ; * and that their first act was to 

* Called barbarians, because they were not Greeks or Eomans. 



L VKE 'S VO YA GE TO IT A L Y. 281 

kindle a fire, because of the rain and cold. They relate 
how Paul himself gathered some sticks whereby to add to 
the benefit ; that in the bundle he had unconsciously con- 
veyed a viper, which, upon the application of the flame, 
started from its quiescence, and fixed its fangs upon his 
arm ; and how he flung it off into the fire, without having 
experienced the usual consequences of such a misadventure. 
Whereupon, the spectators concluded, observing that he 
was a prisoner, that his particular crime had been murder, 
and that retributive vengeance had overtaken him. But 
anon, observing that Paul proceeded with his business, 
indifferent to the casualty, and that none of the symptoms 
which commonly follow the bite of such an animal ensued, 
they changed their opinion, and pronounced him a god. 
This occurrence served to call attention to his person ; and 
would naturally act favourably in respect of his obtaining 
from the natives their assistance to meet the subsequent 
necessities of himself and his company. And thereafter a 
door was opened to the sympathies of the upper class of the 
people by the miracle performed upon the father of Publius, 
the chief man of the island, perhaps the Eoman prefect. 
And, also, the interest of the natives in general was won, 
both towards the person of Paul and towards his ministry 
as an apostle of Christ, by the assuaging of the afflictions of 
the many who, having diseases, came and were healed at 
his hands. "What the ministry of these servants of Christ 
had been besides, is not told : but that they preached the 
gospel to the people of the island as well, is certain. In 
return, Luke says, "They honoured us" (Paul, Luke, and 
Aristarchus) "with many honours." This had not been 
mentioned unless those honours had been accompanied with 
the substantial benefits which they needed during the 
period of their detention ; and, that these had not been 
withheld, is to be inferred from what is added : " And 
when we departed, they laded us with such things as were 



282 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

necessary." And it may likewise be thought, that, as the 
presence of the Lord's servant in the ship had been a source 
of safety to the lives of his fellow-voyagers, so here it 
was found that the influence Paul acquired among the 
natives had proved a means promotive of their sustentation 
ashore. 

After having spent the winter season at Malta, instead of 
at Crete, the voyage was resumed in the beginning of the 
next year, in a ship from Alexandria bound for Italy with 
a freight of wheat, and which had wintered in the island. 
There was nothing fortuitous in the visit of this ship, for 
Malta lay in its proper course when the voyage by the wide 
sea was ventured upon. " The Alexandrian ships were 
sometimes of large dimensions. One is noticed by Hales (in 
his " Chronology"), whose tonnage was 1938, being 180 feet 
long, 45 wide, and 43J deep ; and that in which Josephus 
was wrecked, a year after, in making the same voyage, car- 
ried six hundred souls." It reflects much credit upon the 
navigators of the ship which had been wrecked conveying 
our company, that notwithstanding the many days they 
had been knocking about, they had succeeded in keeping it 
under such control as to be found at last hardly out of the 
true course. 

The distance from Malta to the island of Sicily is a hun- 
dred miles. There three days were spent at the renowned 
city of Syracuse. Seventy-five years before the Christian 
era, Sicily had been the residence of Cicero in quality of 
Quoestor. Before he left the island he made a tour of in- 
quiry and observation relative to whatever it contained that 
was remarkable. Upon being shown the curiosities of 
Syracuse by the magistrates, he inquired for the tomb of 
Archimedes, who was killed when the city was taken by 
the Romans, B.C. 212; but, to his surprise, he perceived 
that they knew nothing concerning it, and even denied that 
there was any such tomb remaining. Animated, however, 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 283 

by the concurrent testimony of writers, and remembering 
the verses said to be inscribed upon it, and that a sphere 
and cylinder was engraved on some part of it, he would not 
be dissuaded from persevering in the search. Conducted 
without the gate, where the greatest number of the old 
sepulchres existed, he presently observed, in a spot over- 
grown with shrubs and briers, a small column whose head 
just appeared above the bushes, having upon it a sphere 
and cylinder. " This," said he, addressing the company, 
" is the object which I sought." And having commanded 
the ground to be cleared of the brambles and rubbish, he 
found also the inscription, although the latter part of the 
verse was effaced. " Thus," he says, " one of the noblest 
cities of Greece, and once, likewise, the most learned, had 
known nothing of the monument of its most deserving and 
ingenious citizen, if it had not been discovered to them by 
a native of Arpinum." Archimedes is said to have threat- 
ened, if furnished with a fulcrum upon which to rest his 
lever, that he would move the world. For a moral move- 
ment thereof, the Apostles and Evangelists obtained the ful- 
crum ; and thereby the world is moved. 

From Syracuse to the port of their destination was about 
two hundred and fifty miles. Before the ancient city of 
Ehegium (Reggio in Calabria) the ship lingered, awaiting 
a favourable wind to bear it through the Strait of Messina. 
A south wind arising, the voyage was terminated on the 
following day, by the arrival of the ship at Puteoli. 

This city, now called Pozzuolo, is situated just within a 
small bay at the northern extremity of the Bay of Naples. 
It was a place of great commerce, and an emporium for 
grain imported from Egypt and the coasts of North Africa ; 
and being, as a principal port, the nearest to Rome, it was 
here that ambassadors and functionaries of the government 
were accustomed to disembark from the eastern provinces 
of the empire. The harbour was spacious, and protected 



284 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

from the turbulence of the sea by a mole of great extent 
and strength. In crossing the Bay of Naples to arrive 
hither, a scene lay before the eye which it is impossible for 
any word-picture to describe. Ancient writers spake of it 
in terms of rapture ; and a modern, speaking of the first 
glance obtained of it, says, " It was like a scene created by 
the hand of enchantment." Viewed from the deck of the 
" Castor and Pollux," the shore, thirty miles in circumfer- 
ence, was seen planted with populous cities, all with public 
buildings of proportions that at once filled the eye and 
gratified the taste. There were the cities of Naples, Her- 
culaneum and Pompeii ; and behind them, rising in solemn 
grandeur was the mountain Vesuvius, which, in less than 
twenty years afterwards, by a discharge of its boiling lava, 
and the scattering forth of its fiery ashes, entombed the 
two latter cities. 

But to the spectator intelligent and learned, the scene 
possessed other attractions. After observations in the 
East, Luke now saw before him what was eminently classic 
ground in the West. Those enchanting shores had been 
chosen for the favourite retreats of philosophers, poets, and 
statesmen. Looking across the small bay in which Puteoli 
stands, at the distance of three miles, appeared the city 
of Baise, whose luxuriousness was a frequent theme for 
satirists. The shore from Baise, at the one extremity of the 
bay, to Puteoli on the other, was studded with villas of the 
aristocracy of Rome. Baise has disappeared, its site being, 
in a great part, covered by the sea ; and Puteoli maintains 
only a shadowy existence, having, instead of above a hun- 
dred thousand, not more than ten thousand inhabitants. 
Relics of some of the objects on which Luke cast his eyes 
upon landing here are grimly visible. Of the mole, beside 
which his ship was moored, several arches remain, attesting 
its wonderful masonry. The amphitheatre, being a vast 
oval, a few gigantic columns of a temple of Serapis, and 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 285 

some other objects, memorialise periods of a very different 
character from the present. 

But Luke was in no mood to linger over those scenes, 
nor was he able to appreciate them now. His friend, 
whom he attended as a companion, had come hither a 
prisoner : that circumstance spoiled all. But another 
source of interest, and one more congenial with his feelings, 
was at hand. " Here," he writes, " we found brethren, 
and were desired to tarry with them seven days." Here, 
then, again Paul was kindly treated by the centurion, in 
being permitted to comply with the invitation. With this 
pious community Luke and his companions "refreshed" 
themselves. 

Having been gratified with a week's sojouru at Puteoli, 
Luke adds, " And so we went towards Borne." The know- 
ledge that this was the last journey taken by him in com- 
pany with Paul, will invest it with a melancholy interest 
in the mind of the reader. As the distance to Borne was 
about one hundred and forty miles, it is to be supposed that 
the journey was performed in an ordinary vehicle of the form 
of an open waggon, drawn by mules or horses, two or three 
abreast. The direct road to Borne ran beside the coast to 
Sinessa, where it came upon the Via Appia, which likewise 
from this town skirted the coast as far as to Terracina. 
At this place the highway diverged from the sea-side, and 
took a straight course to Borne, a distance from hence of 
about sixty miles. 

The Bomans, early sensible of the advantages arising 
from an easy and speedy communication with the different 
parts of their dominions, bestowed much attention to their 
highways, commonly called their consular or military roads. 
These roads, like the railroads of the present day, were 
carried on, as nearly as possible, in straight lines. Hills 
were sometimes levelled, valleys filled up, swamps drained, 
banks raised, ditches dug where inundations were appre- 



286 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

hended, and bridges built over rivers and hollows. Thus 
the great south road derived its name from its founder, 
Appius Claudius Csecus, who was consul of Rome in the 
year A.D. 296, and again in 307. Between each mile a 
pillar was raised to mark the distance from Rome ; and at 
the end of about every twenty miles stations were estab- 
lished for the convenience of government couriers, and 
where relays of horses and mules were obtainable, and 
refreshment might be taken by travellers in general. 

The first station reached on this part of the road was 
Appii Forum, a place, as its name indicates ; in which a 
market was held and justice administered : its distance 
from Rome was forty-three miles. Horace has described, 
in humorous terms, a journey which he made with 
Mecsenas along its whole extent from Rome to Brun- 
dusium. He says, " This part of our route, which to more 
active travellers than ourselves was a day's journey, we 
lazily took two to accomplish." And he represents the 
place as being " full of boatmen and vulgar innkeepers." 
Its adjacence to a canal, and the number of inns with 
which a market-place is usually surrounded, accounts for 
this description. Upon arriving at Sinessa, Horace and 
his companion were joined by Virgil, Plotius, and Varius, 
from their respective residences in the neighbourhood of 
Puteoli and Baise. That was a memorable meeting and 
fellowship of genius. And the picture of it is not too 
highly toned, where the poet, describing his companions 
and his feelings upon the occasion, writes — 

" Souls more candid ne'er trod the earth 
To none am I more strongly bound : 
Oh, what embraces, what joys were there ! " 

— Sat. i. 5. 

Now a band of another fellowship than that of mere 
genius — one of a holier element — travels that road, who 
also are met by friends that accompany them throughout 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 287 

the rest of the journey. "When," writes Luke, "the 
brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as 
Appii Forum." Who would have been the friends that 
manifested such devotion to the Apostle and his com- 
panions as to travel so far to meet them, but those who 
had invited him to visit them, and to whom he had written 
the letter in which he informed them of his intention to 
comply with their request 1 Their haste to welcome him 
was befitting their having made that invitation. It proved 
their sympathy with him, and their sorrow that he should 
be coming to Rome a prisoner ; and it justifies the 
epithets with which several of their names are coupled in 
the salutations of that epistle. Surely at the meeting of 
such friends as these, and under such circumstances, it 
might have been again said — 

" Oh, what embraces were there ! " 

As they were within a day's journey from Rome, the 
combined parties may have rested that night at Appii 
Forum, and have resumed the journey betimes on the 
morrow. Tres Tiburnce, which was the next and inter- 
mediate station towards Rome, was of small extent, 
having three inns, which gave the name to the place. It 
was probably resorted to by the inhabitants of Rome for 
recreation, as Cicero speaks of having come hither to cele- 
brate the festival of Ceres. At this station another party 
of brethren from Rome was found, waiting to welcome the 
Apostle. These may be supposed to have been some who 
were less robust than the former, and with the party were 
probably some of those women who are named with com- 
mendation in the Epistle to the Romans. This second 
manifestation of sympathy for him had an impressive and 
salutary effect upon Paul's mind. He had been unable to 
repress melancholy musings on the difference of his situa- 
tion, upon entering the capital, to what he had expected it 



288 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

to be when he addressed his epistle to the friends com- 
posing those saintly bands. But by this interview his 
feelings became elevated. And Luke's pleasure in witness- 
ing the change appears in the observation added to his 
notice of the meeting, " Then Paul took courage." They 
had proved to him messengers of peace. 

From hence, the combined parties moving forward, 
they rapidly passed Aricia, a town of infamous repute, 
where Diana was worshipped with inhuman rites, whereof 
enough appears in the fact, that her priest was always a 
runaway slave, who succeeded to the office by killing his pre- 
decessor in a match at single combat. Luke had seen the 
memorials of the dead beside cities in Africa and Greece. 
He came now upon a scene significant both of vanity and 
of woe transcending any that he had before beheld. From 
Aricia, which was twelve miles from the capital, every 
other object — the celebrated spots on either hand, the fine 
eminences, the several temples, the elegant villas, the long 
lines of arched aqueducts, all lost their interest with the 
traveller by reason of the stronger appeal made to the 
imagination by the great number and ever-varying character 
of the sepulchres and monuments that thronged the road. 
This vast necropolis extended a quarter or half a mile deep 
on either side, up to the walls of the city. Monuments of 
Romans of renown or wealth, dating a long antiquity, and 
stately tombs of recent periods, presented an impressive 
illustration of almost every stage in the Roman history. 
And even now, after the devastations of all kinds, proceeding 
through nearly eighteen centuries, travellers observe that 
there is nothing so sublimely melancholy as a journey along 
this road in view of the mute memorials, still subsisting, of 
those once mighty rulers. It is said by a learned traveller : 
" The entrance to Rome from the side of Naples exceeds 
anything that Italy can produce, and of which no descrip- 
tion can be exaggerated. This is the only road from which 



LUKE'S VOYAGE TO ITALY. 289 

the whole city is actually surveyed " (Burton's "Antiquities 
of Rome "). But it may be thought that Luke was too 
much occupied in conversation with some of the brethren 
who had just joined his company, or engaged in observing 
the happy effect of their presence upon Paul, to receive the 
full impression of those scenes. And presently the jour- 
ney ended ; they entered Rome, company after company, 
through the Porta Capena. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



The First Part 



Rome was now entered by the travellers, the period being, 
as is supposed, early in the year A.D. 62. Luke's long 
wished-for visit to the metropolis of the world was at 
length accomplished. The prayer that had been offered by 
Paul and by his friends here, at his request, " that he 
might come to them by the will of God," was now answered. 
This event is the culminating point of Luke's journal. 
They had started together propitiously from Macedonia, 
but soon intimations were given of the hindrances that 
succeeded. Paul's imprisonment seemed an insuperable 
obstacle; yet a bow appeared in the clouds. Assurance 
was given and repeated by their Lord that Paul should 
testify for Him in Rome ; and the structure of Luke's 
narrative was set to magnify that word. His account of 
the several proceedings against Paul in Palestine — his 
details of the voyage and the shipwreck, all serve to give 
effect to the issue, and to stamp it as a remarkable record 
of the divine faithfulness. Although his friend had come 
as a prisoner from a distant province, yet, by the divine 
favour, his situation had been attended throughout by 
several mitigations. After the example of Joseph, the 
patriarch, when in prison in Egypt, Paul had acquired the 
esteem, and obtained the obliging conduct towards him, of 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 291 

the successive officers to whose charge he had been com- 
mitted. During the voyage, Julius, the Roman officer, had 
treated him more like a companion than as a prisoner. He 
had consulted his convenience on every occasion. Of course 
Paul's respectful acknowledgments had followed ; and hence 
mutual esteem naturally arose by the courtesy of the one, 
and the pious and befitting behaviour of the other. And 
as they had been fellow-sufferers during the tempest and in 
the shipwreck, and as Paul's presence had been the means 
of saving his life and the lives of all on board, the Roman 
soldier and the Christian prophet would naturally come to 
entertain for each other mutual sentiments of gratitude and 
respect. 

Luke now writes, " And when we came to Rome, the 
centurion delivered the prisoners to the military com- 
mander," called in Latin Prcefedus Prcetorio. The quarters 
of the Praetorian or imperial guards was called Castrum 
Pnetorium. It was situated on the north-east, without the 
walls of the city, but since enclosed by them. Much of the 
said building remains, some parts having been repaired with 
the old materials. Thither, therefore, the centurion's 
prisoners were conducted. And, as this is the only place 
in Rome to which the presence of Paul can actually be 
traced, that edifice will be an object of interest to the 
Christian traveller. 

By the care of Julius, the attention of the prefect was 
especially directed to the case of Paul. Having handed to 
the magistrate the report of Festus concerning him, wdierein 
it would have been stated that no criminal act had been 
proved against him, the centurion would certainly there- 
upon offer a representation suitable to his own feelings, 
and relate some of the features of Paul's admirable conduct 
as observed by him during the time he had been in his 
custody. The prefect's attention was hereby engaged to- 
wards Paul's case, and the happy effect thereof was 



292 BIOGRA PII Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

immediate. Instead of sending him to associate with 
other prisoners, he ordered that he should enjoy the utmost 
privilege consistent with his position as a state-prisoner. 
And the gratification with which Luke listened to this 
adjudication is discerned in his words, " But suffered Paul 
to dwell by himself, with a soldier that kept him." No 
need is there to question with what class Paul found the 
accommodation of a lodging. It does not appear that Aquila 
and Priscilla were in Rome at this time, or he had certainly 
been seized on by that exemplary couple for their guest. 
But, in the absence of these, there would have been many 
who, " given to hospitality," would hail as a privilege an 
opportunity to afford the Apostle that accommodation. 
Some of those Christians were now by his side who, 
having gone forth to meet him, had not retired until they 
had seen in what manner he was disposed of. By one of 
those friends he would surely have been received to his 
home, albeit burdened with the presence of the soldier that 
kept him. 

Thus, then, by the favour of his divine Master's pro- 
vidence, was Paul permitted to " refresh himself with his 
friends in Eome " (Eom. xv. 32). Nor can it be supposed 
that his two comforters were separated from him, but that 
Luke and Aristarchus were likewise invited to the same 
dwelling. Having come to their lodging, and ere they 
retired to rest, what communings would arise between these 
three confessors ! How would the sad situation of the 
Apostle, and yet its alleviations, the mishaps of their 
journey and its mercies, the novelty of their present 
situation, the fears and hopes commingling respecting their 
future ministry, and how far and in what manner it might 
be prosecuted in their peculiar case, occupy their minds and 
compel consideration ! 

Here, again, on the morrow, would their friends gather 
around them. Here, too, those saints who had not a pre- 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 293 

vious acquaintance with him would come to look upon the 
face of the writer of the letter he had addressed to them 
from Corinth, so sublime in doctrine, and so loving in its 
personal allusions. 

Speedily was Paul's ministry in Eome commenced. Fol- 
lowing his Master's order, he had always borne his testi- 
mony first to Jews. But now he had an additional reason 
for wishing to address them at the earliest opportunity — the 
reason being that he might explain the circumstances that 
caused his coming hither a prisoner. He could not attend 
their synagogue, so he obtained notice to be given to the 
principal Jews in tbe city — which was easy to do, as they 
resided in a particular locality — of his wish for an inter- 
view with them at his lodging. Accordingly, on the third 
day after his arrival, several attended, to whom he explained 
his case, as the Jews in Jerusalem were concerned in it, 
protesting, in conclusion, " Therefore have I called for you, 
to see you, and to speak with you ; because for the ' Hope 
of Israel' I am bound with this chain." At this interview 
his hearers responded with candour, and expressed a desire 
that he would let them hear him again concerning his doc- 
trine, which they regarded as being one held by a sect that 
had recently arisen among the Jews. 

By a meeting, therefore, of their own appointment, an 
opportunity was given to Paul to deliver his first testimony 
for Christ in Eome. That was an eventful meeting, inas- 
much as it was also the last occasion recorded of a formal 
conference held by Paul with a company of Jews. Never- 
theless, dispensing with a recital of the arguments of Paul's 
discourse, Luke only says, in a summary way, " There came 
many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded 
the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus out 
of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets." The reason 
for the historian's brevity, it may be thought, was the simi- 
larity of the discourse with those which Paul had formerly 



294 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

addressed to Jews, two of which are given at adequate 
length, one in a synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia, and the 
other in Jerusalem, from the stairs of the castle. Luke 
intimates the earnestness with which Paul spake, and the 
close attention given to his discourse by the audience, by 
the note, that they were engaged herein " from morning 
until evening." He depicts the temper of the Jews by 
noticing the yielding belief to Paul's doctrine by some, and 
the persistence in unbelief by others. And he exhibits the 
effect of the rejection of the gospel by the latter upon Paul's 
mind by producing the terms by which he concluded his 
testimony, his application of a prophetic rebuke to them, 
and the emphatic utterance of his resolve to turn to the 
Gentiles, who would hear it. This is the last of those his- 
torical sketches which have formed the life-spring of these 
biographical exercises. In observing this, a feeling of sad- 
ness is experienced, akin to that of casting a last and fare- 
well glance upon scenes which have been frequented, full 
of beauty, and fragrant with all that could commend them 
to the senses, and which, besides, were tinged with that 
ethereal loveliness which was imparted to them by the com- 
panionship of a friend whose intelligence and piety com- 
manded sympathy and veneration. 

Here, then, was Luke in that great city, the Imperium 
Terris, as it is named by Virgil. From whatever point 
regarded, Rome had a remarkable appearance. It occupied 
seven hills, with their valleys. And although some of those 
hills are not very distinguishable now, they were all pro- 
minent then. Luke had not desired to come hither to 
gratify curiosity or taste in respect of objects mundane ; 
yet, as in the several cities he had visited before, so here 
the prominent features of the place would not escape his 
observation. At every step some object of interest met the 
eye : palaces and temples adorning the hills, and theatres 
and other edifices of vast proportions occupying sites in the 



LUKE 'S RESIDENCE IN HOME. 295 

plains. Indeed, vastness was the chief feature of Rome. 
Never before had he seen such an assemblage of great 
buildings. In eastern countries public buildings were 
chiefly made of marble or stone, and, except in Egypt, 
were of moderate dimensions. But in Rome, the larger 
were constructed of bricks, the walls being of great breadth, 
and their height in proportion. Among the useful as well 
as ornamental erections were the porticos. These in his 
walks Luke would have had occasion sometimes to traverse. 
The Romans were fond of columns. And the shelter from 
sunshine or showers which colonnades afforded rendered 
them very convenient* whilst the number and loftiness of 
the columns fitted them to adorn the great buildings 
around or beside which they were erected. Paved with 
Mosaic tiles, they formed pleasant promenades. But be- 
sides this, the .porticos were used for various purposes, 
according to locality. Under the shade of some of them 
magistrates held their courts ; in others, articles were ex- 
posed for sale ; in others, rhetoricians exemplified their 
rules ; in others, lectures were delivered by moralists and 
sophists to congregated pupils. Babels of philosophy were 
the porticos where those lecturers were found. There 
almost every sect, African, Greek, and Roman, were repre- 
sented ; and there harangues might be daily heard from 
the cynic, who declared the excellence of poverty and filthi- 
ness \ the epicurean, who, on the ground of the doctrine of 
life's finality, recommended an indulgence of the appetites, 
and who commended himself to the tables of the rich at once 
by the suavity of his manners and the neatness of his attire. 
Here Luke might have seen Demetrius, the stoic of Cor- 
inth, who was in Rome at this time ; and concerning whom 
Seneca said, " Leaving the nobles clad in purple, I con- 
verse with and admire the half-naked Demetrius. And 
why do I admire him 1 but because I perceive that in the 
midst of poverty, he wants nothing. When I hear this 



296 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

excellent man discoursing from his couch of straw, I per- 
ceive in him not a preceptor only, but a witness of the 
truth ; and I cannot doubt that Providence has endowed 
him with such virtues and talents that he might be an ex- 
ample and a monitor to the present age." One of this 
philosophers maxims was : "It is better to have a few 
principles of wisdom always at hand to use, than to learn 
many things which cannot be applied to practice." Deme- 
trius was afterwards expelled from Rome for having re- 
flected upon the vices of the Emperor. When he returned 
to Corinth, he visited Musonius, who had been banished to 
the Isthmus of Corinth for the same cause. He found 
Musonius labouring as a slave with a spade ; and expressing 
grief for the misfortune of his friend, Musonius, striking 
his spade into the ground, replied, " Why, Demetrius, do 
you lament to see me digging in the isthmus ? You might 
lament if you saw me, like Nero, playing upon the harp " 
(" Enfield's History of Philosophy," vol. ii.) 

The number of inhabitants in Rome at this period has 
been differently computed from two to four millions. But 
as the suburbs of the city, like those of London, extended 
several miles around, and were likewise very populous, the 
lower figures might have related only to the city, and the 
others to both the city and the suburbs, although, even 
then, they are generally thought to exceed the reality. 
Athenseus writes : " Rome presents a people collected from 
all parts of the globe. The city may be called an epitome 
of the universe. Here are seen the rich Alexandrian, the 
beauty of Antioch, the brilliant Mcomedian" (Book i.) 

Upon the arrival of our company in Rome, the Emperor 
Nero was in the eighth year of his reign, having succeeded 
Claudius in October A.D. 54. His education had been con- 
ducted by eminent teachers, the principal of whom were 
Burrus for athletic training, and Seneca for mental. 
Both of these had been afterwards honoured and en- 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 297 

riched by the favour of the Emperor; and both of 
them were at that moment the prefects or chief magis- 
trates of the city, — Burrus being the military commander, 
and Seneca chief of the civil departments. It was to 
the custody of Burrus that Paul had been committed. 
Xero had commenced his reign in a manner consistent with 
what had been the character of their teaching. But soon, 
like too many young persons, he chose evil counsellors, 
who prejudiced him against his former ones, suggesting to 
him that he had been long enough under tutors ; and more 
than this, who influenced the malignity latent in his 
nature. Thereafter, upon different pretexts, Burrus and 
Seneca were deposed. Burrus was poisoned in the next 
year after the arrival of Luke in Rome ; and two years 
later, Seneca was made to commit self-destruction. It 
does not appear, however, that Seneca died a martyr for 
his " morals," but that he was sentenced to death in conse- 
quence of meddling with the broils of the imperial family. 
Luke may, in the course of his movements about Rome, 
have seen Seneca. But certainly Paul's situation did not 
admit the probability of such a circumstance. Paul had 
formerly seen Seneca's eldest brother, Marcus Anngeus 
Nbvatus, who changed his name to Junius Gallio, by whom 
he had been adopted. To Gallio, Seneca dedicated his 
11 Discourse on a Happy Life." As the proconsul of Achaia, 
Paul had been brought before Gallio by the Jews at Cor- 
inth ; but being a Stoic, and following the then Roman rule 
of toleration in worship, he abruptly refused to enter into 
the charge (Acts xviii. 12-17). 

Absurd as curious is a fictitious correspondence between 
Seneca and Paul. The letters composing it are fourteen in 
number, varying in length from five to twenty-five lines 
each. The correspondence opens with a letter addressed 
by the philosopher to the Apostle, in which it is repre- 
sented that the writing of it was suggested by a conversa- 



298 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

tion held with Lucilius in the garden of Sallust, some 
of Paul's disciples being in their company. It speaks of 
the writer's having read some of Paul's epistles. All the 
letters, including the pretended replies to them of Paul, are 
little more than complimentary. The name of Christ is not 
mentioned throughout, and they have other discrepancies 
besides. So that it would be no inappropriate guess to 
suppose that they were composed, as a frolicsome exercise, 
by one of Constantine's too quickly-made Christians. 
Nevertheless, Jerome, in his "List of Ecclesiastical 
Writers," professes that, on account of those letters, he 
was induced to number Seneca with the saints : a pro- 
found mistake; for, independently of the character of the 
letters, saints do not engage in plots ; neither will they, 
with intellect intact, die by their own hands. 

Important to Luke was his opportunity for an observa- 
tion of the world of mind by which he was surrounded, in 
respect to its moral and religious character. That character 
was conspicuously symbolised by the public buildings. The 
number and size of the theatres gave evidence of the devo- 
tion of the Romans to their amusements ; whilst a sight 
of the chief of them, the amphitheatre, of colossal propor- 
tions, would have raised a feeling of awe in the mind of the 
Christian beholder, knowing that, at seasons, spectators 
pressed into it by scores of thousands to gratify their taste 
for the scenes of fatal heroism and sanguinary cruelties 
therein exhibited. And still does the amphitheatre retain 
a mournful memory. For therein, not long afterwards, 
Christians were cast to wild beasts, that wilder men might 
gloat over the agonies of their martyrdom. 

And as the theatres illustrated the sensual tendencies of 
the population, no less did the temples, which everywhere 
met the eye, betoken the prevalence of superstition. The 
number of these in Rome at that period was at least three 
hundred. Some years later they were said to amount to four 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 299 

hundred. Among the gods to whom those temples were 
dedicated there existed classes aristocratic and plebeian, — 
distinctions which, like Swedenborg's doctrine of corre- 
spondencies, were adapted to the ranks of Roman society. 
And as there was no special order of priesthood established 
among the Romans, the ceremonies appertaining to the supe- 
rior gods were performed by distinguished patricians, the 
Emperor himself being the Pontifex Maximus, to whom also 
belonged the magistracy of the temples in general. But 
there was a further peculiarity about the religious element 
of Rome. Whatever country had been subdued, the people 
thereof were allowed to retain their own gods and cere- 
monies. So that Gibbon says, " Rome being filled with sub- 
jects and strangers from every part of the world, who were 
all permitted to enjoy therein the particular superstitions 
of their country, it became, hereby the common temple of 
her subjects ; and," he adds, " the freedom of the city was 
bestowed upon all the gods of mankind." It was on this 
account that Rome obtained the name of Urbs Deorum. And 
to suit this catholicity was the object of the Pantheon, a 
temple dedicated to Jupiter and all gods, an innumerable 
company ! The varieties of Jupiter alone, white and black, 
benign and terrible, and of different denominations, were 
reckoned to be above three hundred by Varro, called " the 
most learned of Romans," and who had been appointed by 
Julius Csesar to be his librarian. 

Often must the Pantheon, cased with marble, with its 
noble portico and circular dome, have been within the 
vision of Luke in his walks through the city. Standing in 
the Campus Martius, a large plain beside the Tiber, the 
Pantheon still remains the most perfect of all the temples 
of Ancient Rome. The visitor now, however, will see it 
shorn of its marble casing. Early in the seventh century 
this building was given by the Emperor Phocas to Pope 
Boniface IV., who, quite characteristically, after an exor- 



300 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

cism and a plenteous lustration, deposited therein thirty- 
six waggon-loads of bones fetched from neighbouring 
cemeteries, and placed both the temple and them under 
another protectorate, renaming the building, " St Mary ad 
Martyr es" It is a curious observation that, twelve hundred 
years after that consecration, out of the hundred churches 
existing in Rome, twenty-six are dedicated to Mary, one to 
Jesus and Mary, and one to Jesus alone ! An observation 
of the morals of the vast population of Rome was a subject 
constantly forced upon the reflecting visitor. Luke saw 
their melancholy variance with the purity of the divine 
law. Persons living in great cities, where the gospel has 
been established for centuries, are nevertheless sensible to 
what a mass of corruption they are neighbours. But how 
immeasurably greater than this was the corruption of man- 
ners witnessed in the Roman metropolis, whose whole com- 
munity, excepting the few Jews and Christians therein, 
was in ignorance of God's holy law ! The wisdom of the 
Romans in the science of legislation is acknowledged, and 
also the excellence of some of the maxims of their moralists. 
But this wisdom and excellence only rendered the evil of 
their manners the more conspicuous. Their legislature lacked 
the breadth that touched licentiousness, and their philo- 
sophy was exclusive, neither reaching, nor being intended 
to reach, the people in general. The corruption of these, un- 
checked by virtuous teaching, was nourished by their pub- 
lic amusements and superstitions ; the former being often 
brutal, and the latter libidinous ; whilst the Caesar now occu- 
pying the throne, being a profligate, his example, together 
with that of his courtiers, gave a full licence to vice. Luke 
had been familiar with various aspects of heathenism, but 
never before had he witnessed it under a development so 
vile and so vast. By contemporary satirists, the vicious- 
ness of the lives of the Romans of all classes was some- 
times exposed. But however dexterous at pointing the 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 301 

barbed arrow were these, they were but lame moralists, as 
the student of the classics too well knows. Ample is the 
corroboration found in their pages of the impressive descrip- 
tion of heathenism set in the front of the Epistle to the 
Romans, wherein the vices enumerated are twenty-two in 
number ; — a catalogue which intimated to his correspondents 
the writer's knowledge of the monster with which he would 
have to combat in the chief seat of its empire, — a descrip- 
tion which forms a fitting supplement to pictures of idola- 
tors occurring throughout the Books of the Prophets. 

At this point Luke's narrative, hitherto the delighful 
fount of his biography, is suspended. That it was not 
carried forward so as to include Paul's appearances before 
Nero, and to have completed the argument of the fulfilling 
of Christ's declaration concerning His servant, has been the 
regret of many readers, and has raised the cavil of some. 
The surmises to account for its discontinuance have been 
various. A reasonable supposition is, that it was regarded 
by the writer, and by his friends, to have been inexpedient 
to publish particulars of Paul's proceedings, pending the 
decision of his cause by the Emperor. Perhaps after that 
Luke was unable, from some cause now unknown, to put his 
hand again to the subject. Happily, however, after a long 
interval, he subjoined to his narrative a Postcript, wherein 
an outline is given of Paul's situation when he had been 
two years in Rome. As Luke's own situation is only to be 
gathered from that of Paul, this short addendum possesses 
a double value. Like some of Luke's former summaries, 
this postscript is largely suggestive. Its intelligence is 
comprised in five items. 

Theirs/ of these items relates, that " Paul dwelt two whole 
years in his own hired house." This note is as interesting as 
it is significant. It shows that Paul used his privilege of a 
choice of residence to the utmost. His great soul con- 
templated a great work, although he was in bonds. Here 



302 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

was Rome, and there was the world beyond, and he would 
reach them both as far as he might. Lodgings were too 
strait for his temperament and purpose, whether supplied 
by friends or hired. He required the convenience of an 
entire house. An idea may be obtained of his situation 
upon this change of residence by a glance at a house of that 
place and period. A house occupied by one family was 
called domus, as in Scotland such a residence is called a self- 
contained house. The houses in Rome wore a dull appear- 
ance, having no windows like modern ones, but only narrow 
openings, with wooden folds or slides. The principal 
entrance was approached by two or more steps. The 
apartment into which the gate opened was the atrium, or 
hall. This, being a larger apartment than any other, was 
the audience-chamber, around which ornamental furniture 
was arranged. It was also used as the supper -room. Re- 
sembling this apartment were the ancient .baronial halls of 
England. Beyond this apartment, and opposite the gate, 
was the tablinum, or library ; and on either hand of the hall 
were other apartments. Generally, there was only one 
other suite of rooms above. By this change in Paul's resi- 
dence was added another Christian household to those that 
existed in Rome. To the reader loving a domestic life, the 
notice of this feature of the Apostle's life will be regarded 
with pleasure. Besides other assistants, the household 
would have required the services of a female manager, who, 
in this case, would have been a saintly matron, perchance 
one of the widows for whom the Churches were taught 
especially to care. Paul's companions, Luke and Aristarchus, 
would probably have formed part of the family, as would 
Timothy, upon the occasions of his visiting his father in the 
gospel. Also, in succession, other fellow-labourers, arriving 
from their several spheres, would partake the hospitality of 
the large-hearted host. Here, then, in Paul's own hired 
house was founded the first college de Propaganda Fide, or 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 303 

mission-house, a focus of communication with branches of 
the great work of evangelisation in the city and through- 
out the Roman world. Such was the situation of this 
" ambassador in bonds " in Rome. 

The second item of the postscript relates, " He received all 
that came in unto him." Hereby is testified the liberty Paul 
enjoyed of free intercourse with society, and also his own 
catholic behaviour. As he could no longer go about doing 
good, he dispensed his beneficent ministry in a house open 
to all comers. He had said in his epistle written from 
Corinth to the Romans, " I long to see you, that I may 
impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye 
may be established ; that is, that I may be comforted, 
together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me " 
(i. 11, 12). And now the opportunity to gratify that desire 
was afforded in his own house. 

The third item relates, "Preaching the kingdom of God, and 
teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus." It was 
important that this particular should be mentioned; for 
what is here announced had been the chief object contem- 
plated by Paul in his desire to come to Rome. It had been 
the thrice-promised word of his divine Master, after his 
arrest, that he should go to Rome, and there testify for Him. 
And now the fact of the fulfilment of that word forms the 
final link in Luke's historic chain. But under other circum- 
stances than those which he had hoped for, did Paul devote 
himself to his favourite work. He who had gone forth, 
and for years had fully preached the gospel from Judea to 
Illyricum, was compelled to confine his preaching to the 
compass of the atrium of his own house. 

The fourth item relates that Paul's ministry was prosecuted 
" v:itli all confidence" Paul had declared, when contem- 
plating a visit to Rome, " I am not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ ; I am ready to preach it to you that are at Rome 
also." By this item is told the freedom of spirit with which 



304 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

he fulfilled his ministry. How, in the proudest city in the 
world, would a Jew be accepted as a teacher, and he a 
prisoner remitted from Palestine ? Or how would his doc- 
trine be received concerning the claims of a Jew, that had 
been crucified at Jerusalem, to be a divine Redeemer ? Yet 
so stood Paul before his audiences at Rome, and such was 
the doctrine he preached. With all confidence he preached 
faith in Christ crucified, and afterwards glorified, as the 
only way of salvation, — a way so simple that it will never be 
taken by the proud and self-reliant, but only by the humble 
and meek ; a way so straight that only the unembarrassed 
by the vanities of human sapience or the love of the world, 
can ever enter it. Besides this way, there are a hundred of 
other ways by which the world is confounded and souls are 
lost. And that Paul felt the gravity of his actual situation, 
and how much to preach the gospel with all confidence, 
required a courage inspired by divine grace, is seen in a 
request which he made to the Ephesians in the letter written 
at this time, wherein, advising to prayerfulness, he adds, 
"And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I 
may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of 
God, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein 
I may speak boldly as I ought to speak" (Eph. vi. 19, 20). 
And the fifth item confirms the previous particulars, " no 
man forbidding him." In this last note the divine Master's 
overruling hand is recognised. Paul had been brought by 
His providence to Rome. Here he was to bear a testimony 
for Him. All hearts are in Christ's hands. Throughout 
the various steps of His servant hither, He had caused him 
to be regarded with favour by his keepers ; so here likewise. 
And in this postscript, Luke resumes his pen to inform 
Theophilus and the reader in general, that Paul had been 
able to prosecute the ministry for which he came to Rome, 
albeit in bonds, yet without hindrance by the civil autho- 
rities, or the opposition of others. 



— 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN HOME. 305 

"What an example of simplicity of purpose do the lines of 
this postcript reveal ! And how much Luke was in sym- 
pathy with that divine purpose, appears from his having 
denoted Paul's actual situation in Eome ere he dropped 
his pen finally. 

It has been appropriately said by an expositor under this 
postscript, " Instead of pouring forth the sigh of unavailing 
regret that the sacred historian has carried us no farther 
onward, we should rather speak the language of praise that 
he has given, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, a history 
of the Church for thirty years after the ascension of the 
Saviour; that he has recorded the accounts of the first 
great revivals of religion ; that he has presented to us the 
examples of the early missionary zeal ; that he has informed 
us how the early Christians endured persecution and toil ; 
that he has conducted us from land to land, and from city 
to city, showing us everywhere how the gospel was propa- 
gated, until we are led to the seat of the Roman power, and 
see the great Apostle of Christianity there proclaiming in 
that mighty capital of the world the name of Jesus as the 
Saviour of men" (Albert Barnes). 

A digression may be permitted here. Besides his other 
occupations in Borne, Luke is represented by ecclesiastical 
fabulists to have exercised the art of painting. And, 
although no original copy of his writings exists, several of 
his paintings are professed to be preserved in Rome, and in 
other places in Italy. It is related by the Rev. William 
Arthur, in his " Italy in Transition," — " At the Lateran (at 
the top of the Holy Stair) is a little dark chapel ; you can 
see through the grating, and read a Latin inscription to the 
effect that there is not upon earth a spot more holy. No 
woman may enter. It contains a picture by St Luke, said 
to be an exact likeness of the Saviour when twelve years of 
age" (p. 317). Another, being the most famous of those 

u 



306 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

pictures, is the one placed over the altar in the chapel della 
Madonna, attached to the Basilica of the Church of Santa 
Maria Maggiore. By the side of this picture is suspended a 
Bull by Pope Pius the Sixth, attesting its authenticity. A 
history and description of this picture has lately been pub- 
lished by the Abb6 Milochan, canon of Rennes. In that 
publication it is said, " To the left (under the cupola), the 
visitor perceives no other object of his worship than a 
simple picture, the work of a mediocre painter, blackened 
by age, for which the sovereign pontiffs have not thought 
it too much to erect this chapel, than which no chapel in 
Rome is more splendid ; for the reason that this picture is 
the first which received the homage of the faithful, the true 
portrait of the Holy Virgin, painted by the same hand that 
in the Gospel traced the history of the infancy of Jesus, and 
his relations with His mother." * According to the repre- 
sentations of this writer, the Romans would seem to have 
been more indebted to this picture than to Luke's writings. 
Among other of its miracles, it is said that, upon the occasion 
of the raging of a plague in Rome, the picture having been 
carried in a procession, attended by the Pope and priests 
chanting litanies to the Virgin, the plague was thereupon 
stayed. Corresponding with the virtue attributed to it, is 
the marvel concerning it reported to Max Misson, when, in 
company with the Earl of Arran, he visited the chapel 
in 1688, namely, that sometimes the singing of anthems by 
angels was heard from above the picture. f And speaking 
of another of these paintings, it is said by Mrs Jameson, in 
her "Legends of the Madonna," — "Of the many miracle- 
working Madonnas in Italy popularly attributed to St Luke, 
the Virgin of the Ara-Celi is undoubtedly Greek, and old 
and black and ugly as sanctity could desire" (p. 116). If 
any refutation be needed of the pretensions made con- 

* " La Vierge de Saint Luc, a Sainte Marie Majeure." Paris, 1862. 
f " Voyage d'ltalie," vol. ii., p. 215. 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IX ROME. 307 

cerning those pictures, the following considerations may 
suffice : — 

1. " The profession of a painter was profane and odious 
in the eyes of the primitive Christians " (Gibbon). 

2. There is found no notice concerning any painting 
attributed to Luke until the sixth century, when Theo- 
dore Lector relates that " Eudocia, the wife of the Emperor 
Theodosius, junior, sent from Jerusalem, about the year 
448, the image or picture of the Virgin to Pulcheria, the 
Emperor's sister, which was painted by Luke the Apostle." 

3. Upon the head of the sketch of the portrait which is 
prefixed to the Abbe Milochan's book, is drawn a small >*B • 
the presence of which emphatically contradicts all vouchers 
for the authenticity of the theory as a work of Luke's, that 
symbol being the "mark" of the prophecy Revelations 
xiii. 16, 17. 

4. The authenticity of those pictures is repudiated by 
intelligent Italians. In 1766 was published an essay, read 
to the Academy at Volterra, by Domenico Manni, " Con- 
cerning the Error which attributes the Paintings to the 
Evangelist."* 

5. And — alas ! for the credit of the Pope's bull of authen- 
tication — it appears from Lanzi's " History of Painting in 
Italy," that the legend affirming that Luke had been a painter 
arose from confounding him with a Greek hermit of the 
name of Lucas, who, with other artists, drew those dingy 
pictures to supply the demand that arose for them among 
the churches. 

An institute of painters was founded at Rome in 1595, 
called " The Academy of Saint Luke." This dedication had 
been consistent if it was given in consideration of the obli- 
gation of the early painters to his writings. For to these 
more than to any other parts of Holy Scripture, were they, 

* " Dell Errore che persiste di attribuirsi le Pitture al S. Evange- 
lista." Firenze, 1766. 4to, 24 pages. 



308 BIOQRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

indebted for their subjects. In the academy is preserved 
a picture of St Luke by Raphael, in which the Evangelist is 
represented in the act of executing a portrait of the Virgin 
and Child. There are likewise possessed by the Academy 
Raphael's own portrait, painted by himself, and his veri- 
table skull in a casket. 

There is a portrait of St Luke by Van Sichem, a Flemish 
artist, painted about the year 1600, an engraved copy of 
which is now in the hand of the writer of this biography. 
In this engraving the Evangelist is represented as a Dutch 
professor, with the bonnet or cap usually worn at that 
period. Embracing the ideas of a threefold profession, he 
is depicted seated at a table in his study, with a pen in 
his hand, and his two books before him : facing him is an 
easel, whereupon is a picture of the Virgin and Child, and 
behind him, on a shelf, is a row of bottles and jars. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 

The Second Part. 

Henceforth the sole source of information concerning 
Luke's history is to be found in St Paul's epistles written 
at Rome. In these many are the glimpses afforded of the 
persons composing the Apostle's band of comforters and 
fellow-helpers. From Luke's relations with the writer, he 
was acquainted with his being engaged in composing those 
letters ; and from the interest he took in the history of the 
Churches, and welfare of the persons addressed, Paul would 
have freely communicated to him the topics of his corre- 
spondence. Upon the circumstance that in Paul's epistles 
written in Rome Luke is mentioned only three times, 
Bishop Wordsworth has these interesting remarks : " Cer- 
tainly there was something more than accidental in the fact 
that a person who was so constant an attendant on St Paul 
as St Luke was in his voyages and imprisonments, and who 
was chosen by the Holy Ghost to write the history — the only 
history — of his acts, as well as one of the Gospels, has 
received so little notice by name from St Paul in his 
epistles." And after the query, " What can be the reason 
of this silence ?" the Bishop answers by beautifully saying, 
" None more probable it seems can be assigned, than that 
the Apostle would thus show that the blessed Evangelist 
St Luke acted, wrote, and suffered with a higher aim 
than for praise, even from the lips of an apostle, and that 



310 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

he whose praise is the Gospel needed no other praise ; and 
that the Apostle would not expose himself to the imputa- 
tion of having purchased the honourable record from the 
apostolic historian by panegyrising the historian himself." 

It is, however, gratifying to notice, that in all the 
epistles wherein salutations are delivered from the writer's 
associates, Luke being present, as in that written at 
Corinth, and in the three written at Rome, his name is 
found. Admirable are the illustrations of his situation, 
and highly illustrative of his character are the notices of 
him, which those instances afford. 

The first of this series of letters is the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, set, however, by some critics, after the epistles 
to the Colossians and Philemon. Ephesus had been Paul's 
chief station in Asia Minor, and from thence had sounded 
forth the Word of Life throughout the provinces. He had 
resided at Ephesus at first for a short period, and after- 
wards during two years. In his address to the Church of 
Ephesus, therefore, the Churches throughout Asia were 
likewise included. In this epistle no other name is men- 
tioned than that of Tychichus, the bearer of the letter to 
Ephesus (vi. 21). Tychichus was a minister of the Church 
at Ephesus, and had come to Rome to assist the Apostle 
in his evangelical labours. His arrival was cheering to 
Paul and agreeable to his companions. His character and 
services in the gospel would have strongly commended him 
to Luke, and this opportunity of fellowship with him he 
would have much prized. To Luke he was not a stranger. 
He had been of the party that preceded Paul and Luke in 
going from Macedonia to Troas (Acts xx. 4). That one 
other name, that of Timothy — consecrated by tradition the 
first Bishop of Ephesus — is not found in the epistle ad- 
dressed to the Church of his own diocese, is somewhat 
perplexing, seeing he was in Rome when the letter was 
written. The interest taken by Luke in this communica- 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 311 

tion may be estimated by the historical notices of the Church 
at Ephesus contained in his Acts of the Apostles, furnished 
to him by Paul himself. To the reader this epistle may 
serve for a specimen of the Apostle's teaching in Rome. 
The affluence of thought herein, and the unction crowning 
every sentence of it, testify his enjoyment of the promised 
presence of the Master. 

In the Epistle to the Romans, composed when Paul was 
at freedom, and in the full tide of his successes, two classes 
of persons were addressed — Jews and Gentiles. He therein 
argued the comprehensiveness of the New Covenant, the 
admission into it of all believers in Jesus Christ, irrespec- 
tive of nationalities. Upon his arrival in Rome, having 
expounded the gospel to an assembly of Jews, who, with 
the exception of a remnant, rejected his counsel, he de- 
clared to them his purpose to turn to the Gentiles. When 
composing this epistle, surrounded chiefly by Gentile com- 
panions, he is seen a believing Jew exulting in the new 
position of Gentiles before God. After expounding, in his 
Epistle to the Romans, this mystery, Paul broke forth w T ith 
the exclamation, " O the depth of the riches both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable 
are His judgments, and His ways past finding out !" But 
here having spoken of the grace given to him that he 
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches 
of Christ, in harmony with his situation as the prisoner 
of the Lord, his feelings flow in the calmer utterance of 
prayer, and he meekly says, " I bow my knees unto the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family 
in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, 
according to the riches of His glory," &c. (iii. 14-21). The 
Jews prized the prophetic blessing of their patriarchs ; 
and in this prayer was expressed an apostle's blessing 
upon the Church of Christ, of every place and of every 
generation. A Jew pleading this prayer for Gentiles, and 



312 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

he a prisoner for their cause ! What a sight was that for 
Luke and Aristarchus ! 

The epistle opens with a note of congratulation to the 
Ephesian Church upon their accession to a new relationship 
with God through Jesus Christ. It is observable that 
their election and position are illustrated by characteristics 
peculiar to the Mosaic economy. Thus the tribes of Jacob 
were chosen to be a peculiar people unto God : and Paul 
writes, " According as He hath chosen us in Him before the 
foundation of the world." They were chosen on the ground 
of the sovereignty of the divine love (Deut. vii. 7, 8) : 
and Paul writes, " For by grace are ye saved, through faith, 
and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God." The 
Jews received a seal of their personal adoption, as it is 
explained, "And he received the sign of circumcision, a 
seal," &c. (Rom. iv. 11): and Paul writes to the Gentiles. "In 
whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
Holy Spirit of promise." The Jews were redeemed from a 
bondage : and he writes, " In whom we have redemption 
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the 
riches of His grace." The Jews obtained an inheritance 
in Canaan by divine appointment : and Paul says of the 
Gentiles, " In whom also we have obtained an inheritance 
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things 
after the counsel of His own will/' The Jews had a temple : 
and he writes, " And are built upon the foundation of pro- 
phets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief, in 
whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto 
a holy temple in the Lord." The Jews had Moses for their 
chief : and Paul writes, concerning Jesus Christ, " And 
gave Him to be the Head of all things to His Church." 
The Jews were assigned to be God's witnesses to the 
world : whereupon Paul writes, "And came and preached 
peace to you which were afar off, and to them that 
were nigh. Finally, in the temple was a wall, separating 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 313 

the Gentiles from the holy congregation : and Paul 
writes, " Who hath broken down the wall of partition ; 
now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, 
but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household 
of God." 

The Epistle to the Colossians is the second of this series. 
It is inscribed, "To the saints and faithful brethren." 
Here the members of the Church in general precede the 
ministers, being bishops and deacons, designated by their 
character only. In this epistle is obtained the first glance 
of the principal of those who were associated in Paul's " own 
hired house." In noticing these the grateful hand has set 
a characteristic signature of appreciation after each name, 
one excepted. The names, with the notifications affixed to 
them, are these — 

1. " Timothy, our brother." His name is joined with the 
writer's in the inscription of the epistle. 

2. " Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a 
faithful minister of Jesus Christ ; who also declared unto us 
your love in the Spirit " (i. 7). And again, " Epaphras 
saluteth you, always labouring for you in prayers that ye may 
stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear 
him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them in Lao- 
dicea and them in Hieropolis" (iv. 12, 13). Epaphras had 
come to Eome to take the place of the next-mentioned as 
a missionary assistant in Home. 

3. " Tychichus, a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and 
fellow-servant of the Lord. All my state shall he declare unto 
you. Whom I have sent for this purpose, and that he may know 
your state, and comfort your hearts" (iv. 7, 8). Tychichus 
had been directed to make a similar oral relation to the 
Ephesians (vi. 21). 

4. " Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of 
you. They (he and Tychichus) shall make known unto you 
all things which are done here " (iv. 9). 



314 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

• 5. " Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, saluteth you." So 
denominated, significant of his self-denying service (iv. 10). 

6. "Marcus, sisters son to Barnabas, touching whom ye 
received commandments; if he come unto you, receive him" 
(iv. 10). By this note it would seem that it was known 
to the Colossians how Mark had formerly been separated 
from the Apostle. Perhaps his restoration to his com- 
panionship had been explained when those " command- 
ments" were given. It is said by Romish writers that 
Mark published his Gospel in Rome. But (as it has been 
said before concerning Luke's Gospel) that city was an 
inappropriate place in which to issue a Greek composition. 
It is more reasonable to suppose that he wrote his Gospel 
in the East, and published it when travelling with Peter, 
who calls him " my son," for the use of strangers (Hellen- 
ists) scattered throughout the places visited by that vener- 
able Apostle. 

7. " Justus, who (and Mark) of the circumcision only are 
my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a 
comfort to me" — that is, being Jews (iv. 11). 

8. " Luke, the beloved physician." Luke was personally 
unknown to the Colossians. But that he was known to 
them by reputation is to be inferred from the definite 
article being used, " the beloved physician." Here Paul's 
feelings towards his companion found expression in a man- 
ner whereby his correspondents were informed that his 
medical adviser was by his side ; and so this notice may 
be accounted as one of those things which, as it concerned 
the writer's state, might " comfort their hearts" (iv. 14). 

In this epistle there seems to be an allusion to Luke's 
gospel in the words, " whereof ye heard before" (i.e., of the 
hope laid up in heaven) "in the word of the truth of the 
gospel" (i. 5). This intelligence may very well be thought 
to be other than that by viva voce. Among the inconveni- 
ences occasioned by the neglect of Luke's biography has 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 315 

been the overlooking the allusions to his writings in St 
Paul's epistles, or the controverting them. 

9. "And Demas greet you" (iv. 14). This reads sadly, 
being the only name not followed by some significant par- 
ticular. Here, then, is a list of nine of the principal of the 
Apostle's companions at this time, including Luke. 

It is usual to find it represented that, because Paul writes, 
" As many as have not seen my face in the flesh " (ii. 1), 
he had therefore been personally unknown to his corre- 
spondents of Colosse ; but this conclusion ill accords with 
the structure of the epistle, and especially with the familiar 
particulars just noticed. May it not rather be thought 
that those words refer to the considerable number of con- 
verts that had been added to the Church there during the 
five years since Paul was in Asia Minor 1 

Tychichus was the bearer of both the Epistle to the 
Ephesians and this to the Colossians. Ephesus was reached 
first ; and the Epistle to the Colossians being still in his 
possession, it may be supposed that, when the former letter 
had been publicly read, it would have been followed by 
the reading of the other. The intended mutual use of the 
epistles in the two Churches is inferred from the note to 
the Colossians respecting a similar case : "And when this 
epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the 
Church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the 
epistle from Laodicea" (Col. iv. 16). The subjects treated 
in these epistles were alike applicable to both Churches; 
and the information concerning the brethren contained in 
the one epistle would serve to supply its absence in the 
other. 

Dr Paley has occupied twenty-four pages of his " Horse 
Paulinse " in noticing correspondences between the epistles 
to the Ephesians and Colossians ; and he remarks, " Both 
epistles represent the writer as under imprisonment for the 
gospel, and both treat of the same subject. The Epistle, 



316 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

therefore, to the Ephesians, and the Epistle to theColossians, 
import to be two letters written by the same person, at, or 
nearly at, the same time, and upon the same subject, and 
to have been sent by the same messenger." There are, 
however, important differences in these epistles. They 
differ in extent, the Epistle to the Ephesians being the 
longest of the two. In the Epistle to the Ephesians three 
chapters are occupied with the doctrinal part, which, in the 
epistle to the Colossians, is confined to the first chapter. 
And whereas in the Epistle to the Ephesians, believers are re- 
presented as " called," as " quickened from death," and 
as " exalted to sit with Christ;" in this epistle other figures 
are employed, and they are said to be " translated into the 
kingdom of God's dear Son." Herein the glory of Christ 
enthroned is set forth, and His prerogatives, as the Creator 
of all things, and as the Head of the Church, redeemed by 
His blood, are described. Adapted to this representation 
are the practical parts of the epistle ; and, suitable to the 
figure of a kingdom, there are warnings given against dis- 
loyalty by idolatrous predilections, forming a prophetic 
series a fit companion to the tablets confronting Church 
congregations : — 1. "This I say, lest any man beguile you 
with enticing words." 2. " Beware lest any man spoil you 
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of 
men, after the rudiments of the world " (doctrines and 
legends ichicJi aim to dethrone Christ). 3. "Let no man 
judge you in meats or in drinks " (a superstitious choice of 
them, or abstinence from them) ; "or in respect of a holiday, 
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath " (of ceremonies, and 
days of heathen or of Jewish observance). 4. " Let no man 
beguile you into the worshipping of angels " (and of course 
of inferior beings likewise, under a pretence of humility, and 
contrary to the prerogative of the " One only Mediator"). 5. 
" Touch not, taste not, handle not" (chap, ii.) 

The Epistle to Philemon is the third of the epistles written 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 317 

by Paul at Rome. Extremely brief, yet consisting entirely 
of personalities, it is of singular interest in the series of 
letters written under Luke's observation. Paul does not 
here, as in his epistles addressed to Churches, begin with a 
note of his apostleship, not now writing as a teacher • but 
he designates himself, " Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." 
The Lord having conducted him to Rome, he accepts his 
situation there as a divine ordination. He likewise de- 
scribes himself, " Paul the aged." He was at this time 
about sixty years of age, a period of life at which persons 
ordinarily do not call themselves " aged." Descriptive of 
his own sensations, the expression reveals the fact that, 
physically, he was prematurely old. It intimates how his 
constitution had been affected by his labours, more abundant 
than others, by his having been in prisons frequent, in 
journeyings often, in perils, having suffered shipwreck, in 
weariness, in hunger, with the care devolving upon him of 
all the Churches he had raised, and withal oppressed by a 
distressing bodily infirmity (2 Cor. xi. 23-28 ; 2 Cor. xii. 7). 

1 . In this epistle are to be noticed the correspondent addressed, 
Paul's estimation of whom appears in the inscription, 
"Unto Philemon, our dearly beloved;" a ground of his 
regard for him being expressed in the description, " and 
our fellow-labourer." Nor is this all ; but his character is 
illustrated by the grateful terms in which his services are 
mentioned, in the verses four to seven. And then, greatly 
is our interest in Philemon increased when it further ap- 
pears that he was one of Paul's own converts (ver. 10). 
They who ignore conversion enjoy not the honour, nor 
know the happiness, of this relationship. 

2. The subject of the letter. " I beseech thee for my son 
Onesimus." And this is said of Philemon's slave. In 
Europe, slaves were generally white. They came into 
bondage by having been taken in war, by purchase, by a 
penal sentence, or by having been born of parents in slavery. 



318 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

So numerous were slaves, and sometimes so refractory, as to 
cause trouble to the state. Persons of education and 
superior abilities were sometimes reduced to this condition. 
Onesimus seems to have been of this class. It appears 
from the letter, that having absconded, he had sought to 
conceal himself in the great population of Eome. He had 
very likely formerly seen Paul or some of his company at 
his master's house at Colosse. And now, by some means, 
he had been led to visit the Church in the house of Paul, 
and here he had been arrested by Paul's ministry. So, 
before the master, and now his slave, had been converted 
from the death of heathenism to the life that is in Christ 
by the same Apostle. Being acquainted with his master, 
Paul took Onesimus by the hand, and kept him for a while 
in his own service. And, as he wished to introduce him to 
his master, and also to the Christians at Colosse, in his new 
character, the letter is addressed " unto Philemon, and unto 
the Church assembling in his house." 

3. Philemon's associates. These are addressed conjointly 
with him : — 1. The beloved Apphia, (not our beloved). 
Grotius says this name is altered by the Hebrew letters^, 
from the Greek Appia; and he remarks that she was a 
deaconess, with duties spiritual and temporal, like those 
mentioned Eomans xvi., and Philippians iv. 11. 2. 
"Archippus, our fellow-soldier," — that is, as preaching 
the gospel to the heathen, a perilous enterprise. The 
message had been sent to him in the Epistle to the 
Colossians, " And say to Archippus, Take heed to the 
ministry which thou has received in the Lord, that thou 
fulfil it" (iv. 17). 

4. " The Church in Philemon's housed Here is another 
particular illustrative of Philemon's position and character, 
and another reason for Paul's regard for him, — a particular 
in which he followed Paul's own example in his house at 
Rome. And, now, to this Church at Colosse and its 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 319 

ministers, a letter is brought by the converted fugitive, in 
which, by the Apostle, he is commended to their regards. 
By favour of tradition, Onesimus is advanced to be the 
first Bishop of Colosse. But it is plain that Archippus 
had prior claim to that honour. 

5. The writers own associates, who were — 1. Timothy, who is 
united with the writer in the inscription of the letter as 
" Brother Timothy " — not our brother, for not the pronoun, 
but article the, is the prefix : this combination intimates 
that both Paul and Timothy were familiarly known to their 
correspondents ; 2. Epayhras, described as " My fellow- 
prisoner in Jesus Christ" — not a prisoner of the state, as 
Paul himself was, which would be inconsistent with his 
having come to Eome a messenger from the Church at 
Colosse (Col. iv. 12, 13), but it is said in acknowledgment 
of his self-denying devotion to the person of the Apostle. 
The same compliment is paid to him which was bestowed 
upon Aristarchus in the Epistle to the Colossians (iv. 10) ; 
who in this epistle is classed as a fellow-labourer; 3. 
Marcus; 4. Aristarchus; 5. Demos; 6. Lucas — the four 
last mentioned being called "my fellow-labourers." 

Here, then, Luke's name again appears, and having 
another designation accompanying it. By this passage is 
obtained a testimony that Luke was engaged in another 
ministry than is by some writers allowed to him. 

In this place Luke is mentioned with Mark as a " fellow- 
labourer." That Mark was a preacher as well as a his- 
torian is never disputed. And that Luke was the same is 
witnessed from the time that he was found with the dis- 
ciples who, quitting Jerusalem, " went everywhere preach- 
ing the Word." To regard Luke as a historian is the 
principal thing with posterity; but here is a testimony 
showing that he took a general share in the ministry of the 
gospel. There is nowhere any intimation that Luke had 
visited Colosse ; but the gracefulness of mentioning his 



320 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

name in this place is apparent, as also in the preceding 
epistle, and in each under a different aspect ; for besides 
his fame having long been spread throughout all the 
Churches by his Gospel, he was reverenced by them for his 
magnanimity in abiding with Paul as his comforter at 
Eome. 

Objections were made to the admission of this epistle 
into the volume of Sacred Scripture, because it contains no 
doctrinal or direct religious teaching. But it is to be 
observed that that teaching had already been given in the 
epistle to the Church at Colosse, of which Philemon was a 
member. Its value as a historical document renders it 
worthy of this distinction. Than this, no letter more 
characteristic of a benevolent and magnanimous heart was 
ever penned in Rome. Moreover, what a lustrous example 
does it afford of the condescending and consoling character 
of the gospel of which the writer was a minister, and who 
estimated the soul of a slave as being of equal value with 
that of a prince ! 

The Epistle to the Philippians is the fourth written by Paul 
in Rome. Notwithstanding that Luke is not mentioned 
therein, this epistle possesses a singular value in his 
biography. It forms a supplement to his own narrative of 
events at Philippi (Acts xvi.), and it discovers what had 
been the influence of his teaching there. That this is not 
a second epistle to the Philippians, instead of the only one, 
may be attributed to the circumstance that the pastoral 
care of Luke had rendered a former one unnecessary ; 
otherwise it would have been as likely that a previous 
letter should have been written to the first Church founded 
in Europe, as that two epistles should have been addressed 
to the second Church that was raised here. 

In an observation of the historical particulars of this 
epistle, there are to be noticed — 

1. The Inscription. Paul and Timothy, the servants of 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 321 

Jesus Christ. By this inscription Timothy's share in 
bringing the gospel to Philippi is recognised. " To all 
the saints which are at Philippi, with the bishops and 
deacons." Here, as in the inscription to some of the other 
Epistles, the members in general are put foremost. 

2. A retrospect. " I thank my God upon every remem- 
brance of you, in every prayer for you making request 
with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first 
day until now " (i. 3-5), — that is, from the time that, with 
his company, he entered into the house of Lydia ; and 
that his personal knowledge of them had been renewed, 
when he visited them again, six years afterwards, 
upon the occasion of his going to and returning from 
Corinth on the business of the collection of alms for 
the poor saints in Jerusalem. This epistle differs from all 
the others addressed by Paul to Churches. It is more 
congratulatory than any of them. Herein no precise 
theme of discourse or argument is pursued. The subjects 
touched arise out of the instant occasion of its 'composition, 
and also from remembrances of the history and character 
of his correspondents, the whole being toned with the senti- 
ments which that occasion and those memories inspired. 

3. A favourable representation of Paul's case. " But I 
would that ye should understand that the things which 
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the further- 
ance of the gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are mani- 
fest in all the prsetorium, and in all other places" (ver. 
12, 13). It would have been thought by persons distant from 
the scene that Paul's work was suspended. With a seem- 
ing allusion to his imprisonment at Philippi and its fruits, 
he speaks of his ministry in bonds and its fruits in Rome. 
They were manifest in all the " prsetorium " — that is, the 
quarter of the prsetorium guards (not the Emperor's palace). 
Paul's hired house was probably near to the place to 
which he had been taken upon his arrival. The soldiers 

x 



322 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

to whom he was successively chained, affected by his con- 
duct and discourse before all comers, would convey the 
report thereof to their comrades, and, by the Holy Spirit's 
grace, the impressions made among them were manifest by 
the conversion of some of them. 

4. An intention expressed to send Timothy to Philippi. 
" But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly 
unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know 
your state. For I have no man like-minded who will [so] 
naturally care for your state" (ii. 19, 20). To conclude 
herefrom, as some do, that Luke was not in Rome when 
this letter was written, is unnecessary ; for Luke did not 
receive his appointment as an evangelist from Paul. If 
it had been proper for him to make the visit, Luke would 
have performed the journey on his own account. More- 
over, his advanced age renders unreasonable the thought 
that he should have gone instead of Timothy. 

5. An expectation of release. li But I trust in the Lord 
that I also myself shall come shortly " (ii. 24). This expect- 
ation was grounded upon the circumstance that his accusers, 
having so long delayed to make their appearance to prose- 
cute their charges against him before Caesar's tribunal, he 
might hope, by petition or otherwise, to obtain his libera- 
tion. 

6. A Philippian messenger. " Epaphroditus, your messen- 
ger" (ii. 25). This person is said by some to have been 
the same as Epaphras. But an objection to this opinion is 
found in the definite manner in which each is represented 
by Paul as having belonged to different communities, upon 
different continents. Epaphras was a minister of the 
Church at Colosse, in Proconsular Asia, and Epaphroditus 
was a presbyter of the Church at Philippi, in Macedonia. 
The estimation in which Paul held this visitor appears in 
his designation of him as " my brother, and companion in 
labour, and fellow-soldier." This last term seems to have 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 323 

been used in allusion to the soldier to whom Paul was con- 
stantly chained wrist to wrist. And so it is equivalent to 
what had been said concerning two other of his com- 
panions, that they were his " fellow-prisoners." 

7. An errand accomplished. " Now, ye Philippians, 
know also that in the beginning of the gospel [in Europe] 
no Church communicated with me concerning giving and 
receiving, but ye only. For even [when having gone] to 
Thessalonica ye sent once and again to my necessity. Not 
because I desire a gift ; but I desire fruit that may abound 
to your account. I have all and abundance, having re- 
ceived of Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sacrifice 
acceptable [to me] well pleasing to God. But my God 
shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory 
by Christ Jesus" — a recompense measured by immeasurable 
resources." By the designation of Epaphroditus as "my 
companion in labour," it appears that he was a considerable 
time in Eome. And by that other, " and he that minis- 
tered to my wants," it appears that he came provided with 
ample means to support the Apostle. Paul had been an 
almoner of the Church at Antioch, to convey their offerings 
to the poor saints in Judea. He had afterwards pursued 
the object of a collection for the same persons from other 
Churches. He had likewise gone with this last offering 
to Jerusalem. And now, he who had pleaded so persist- 
ently for the cause of Christ's poor saints, is himself in the 
condition of a recipient. But as the relief comes from a 
source which he felt to have been so warmly fraternal, or 
rather so much in the form of a discharge of a debt — for 
truly he was a prisoner on account of the Gentiles — his 
great soul felt no abasement thereby, but exulted at the 
grace bestowed alike upon both the givers and the re- 
ceiver. 

8. The messenger's departure. "Yet I thought it neces- 
sary to send to you Epaphroditus" (ii. 25). The reason 



324 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

for his dismissal arose from a severe illness which he had 
suffered, and which having been reported to the Philip- 
pians, Epaphroditus was anxious to allay their anxiety con- 
cerning his health by his immediate return. Moreover, 
the writer declares that the joy which his return would 
occasion to his correspondents would alleviate his own sor- 
row at parting with him. So the friend is restored with 
this dimissory, " Receive him therefore in the Lord with 
all gladness, and hold him in reputation ; because for the 
work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his 
life to supply your lack of service toward me" (ii. 29, 30). 

9. Instructions given to Epaphroditus. "I entreat thee 
also, true yoke-fellow"— 1. "Help those women which 
laboured with me in the gospel." This describes deacon- 
esses. These were so well known to the messenger and to 
the Church, and their zealous co-operation with Paul when 
at Philippi, that this description is given instead of their 
names. Perhaps one object of their labour had been the 
aid rendered in the collection made for the poor saints in 
Palestine. 2. " With Clement also." This person is 
claimed for Clemens Piomanus ; but that he was a Greek is as 
likely as that the other persons here mentioned were 
Greeks. 3. "And other my fellow-labourers whose names 
[not registered here] are in the book of life " (iv. 3). 4. 
" Salute every saint in Christ Jesus." The benevolent 
heart cannot overlook one of Christ's members, however 
obscure (iv. 21). 

10. Salutations sent to the Philippians. 1. "The brethren 
who are with me greet you." Although not mentioned by 
name, these were Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, and perhaps 
Mark. Timothy united in addressing the letter. Dis- 
appointment is felt that at least the name does not transpire 
of him who, with Paul, Silas, and Timothy, had taken the 
gospel to Philippi, and had afterwards remained the episcopus 
of the Church there. The arrival of a minister must have 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 325 

been a happy event for Luke, and his protracted stay in 
Eome a source of much gratification to him. Their con- 
versations together would often relate to the affairs of their 
Macedonian friends ; and by the opportunity of his return, 
Luke would surely have committed to him various messages 
to friends, and also would have made written communica- 
tions to some of them. In like manner, some others of 
the "brethren" who were acquainted with Philippians 
would have prepared communications to be conveyed by 
the same hand. In this view of the case is perhaps found 
the reason why the names of the " brethren" came to be 
omitted. 2. " All the saints salute you, chiefly they that 
are of Caesar's household." So an advantage of his " bonds 
in Christ " had been the conversion of some of these. 

11. Characteristic counsels. As in the epistles to the 
Ephesians and the Colossians, so in this precepts and 
cautions have a place. But that these in no manner pre- 
sume any defect in the conduct of his correspondents is 
manifest from the words, " Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 
have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but much 
more in my absence," &c. (ii. 12) ; "Let us therefore, as 
many as he perfect, be thus minded" (iii. 15) ; "Therefore, 
dearly beloved, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord " 
(iv. 1). Inviting them, saying, "Brethren, be followers 
together of me," the Apostle cheerfully declares that, 
whether by his life or by his death, his Master will be 
glorified, averring, " For me to live is Christ, and to die is 
gain." He urges his correspondents to " stand fast, nothing 
terrified by their adversaries ; for it was given unto them 
both to believe in Christ, and to suffer for His sake." From 
the privilege of suffering for Christ, he urges conformity 
with Him : "If, therefore, there be any consolation in 
Christ," &c, "fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded" 
(ii. 1). [An instance of this fellowship was exhibited when 
this passage was quoted as a farewell message to the saints 



326 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

of Bohemia by the martyr Huss, concerning whom Luther 
said "he deserved to be canonised."] Further, the Philip- 
pians are exhorted to exercise "humbleness of mind," upon 
the ground of the wondrous example of the condescension 
of Christ (ii. 5-11). They are exhorted, "Do all things 
without murmurings and dispu tings." Two persons at 
variance are addressed : " I beseech Euodias and Syntyche 
that they be of one mind in the Lord " (iv. 2). The golden 
maxim is proposed, adapted alike to religious and secular 
life, " Let your moderation be known unto all men." They 
are counselled, "Be careful for nothing; but by prayer and 
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made 
known unto God." As the first fruits of the Apostle's 
mission in Europe, exultation at the bright example of 
piety presented by the Church at Philippi begins and is 
continued throughout the epistle ; and that they might 
be cheered under their sufferings in behalf of Christ, and 
share his own happy experience, he urges, " Eejoice in the 
Lord" (iii. 1) ; "Rejoice in the Lord alway; again I say, 
Rejoice " (iv. 4). Notes these are unlike those of a prisoner ; 
they recall the scene when, with Silas, the writer sang in 
the jail at Philippi. If it did not transpire that the writer 
was now in bonds, it might have been thought that this 
epistle had been written in some favourable situation, as 
when in the house of " mine host at Corinth," surrounded 
by the company of friends, whose names appear in the 
Epistle to the Romans. What an attestation is afforded 
by this document of the Master's presence with His servant ! 
The Epistle to the Hebrews is the fifth of those epistles 
which were written by Paul at Rome. Its authorship has 
been a subject of much debate. The question itself, and 
the controversies respecting it, are reviewed, historically 
and critically, by Professor Moses Stuart, in an Introduc- 
tion, consisting of two hundred and forty-eight pages, prefixed 
to his Commentary on this Epistle. It is a case, however, 



L FEE 'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 327 

in which the evidence so greatly preponderates on the one 
side, that there is occasion for little suspense in coming to 
a judgment concerning it. By the absence of an inscription 
of Paul's name upon the epistle, it became a question in 
some quarters who was the writer of it ; but it is declared 
by Jerome, that "-the knowledge that it was Paul's produc- 
tion was always preserved by the Oriental Churches. " At 
Alexandria there had been established classes, called 
catechetical, for the instruction of heathen inquirers in the 
history and doctrines of the Christian religion. Towards 
the close of the second century, Clement of Alexandria was 
the chief leader of this school. He affirmed, in a work 
edited by Eusebius, ' ; Paul was the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews : and as it was addressed to the Hebrews, it 
was originally written in their language, and afterwards 
translated by Luke for the use of the Greeks" (lib. vi., c. 14). 
Pant?enus, his predecessor in the tutorship of the same 
school, is reported by Clement to have given the same 
testimony. Might not this knowledge concerning the sub- 
ject have been obtained by the transmission of a copy of 
the Greek version of the Epistle by Luke to his friend 
Theophilus I In the next century, Origen said the ancients 
did not rashly hand it down to us as the production of 
Paul. And as a critic, confirming the account of Luke's 
Greek version, Origen remarks, " The character of the 
style of the Epistle to the Hebrews has not the unpolished 
cast of the Apostle's language, who professes himself to be 
a man unlearned in speech — that is, in phraseology. Be- 
sides, this epistle, in the texture of its style, is more con- 
formed to the Greek idiom, as every one must confess who 
is able to distinguish differences of style. I should say 
that the phraseology and the texture belong to some one 
relating the Apostle's sentiments." That Paul was the 
writer of the epistle was primarily doubted in the Western 
Churches : and to doubts naturally succeeded errors. Some, 



328 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

dissenting from the belief that the epistle was Paul's, attri- 
buted it to Clement of Rome, and some to Luke ; but these 
two having been Gentiles, their claim is properly regarded 
as incapable of being entertained. By others, Barnabas is 
said to have been the writer of it ; but if the epistle which 
is already attributed to him be taken for a specimen of his 
matter and manner, it was manifest that he was not the 
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. By others, Apollos 
has been named as the writer of it; and some German 
critics, as Bleek, De Wette, and Tholuck, have advocated 
this hypothesis, and of course with characteristic recondite- 
ness. But besides Luke's notice that Apollos was an eloquent 
man, and mighty in the Scriptures, there is no pretence for 
the opinion. No documentary criterion exists whereby to 
make a comparison, and thereby to judge of the ability of 
Apollos as a writer. His case, therefore, as a candidate is 
plainly defective, for want of a prime item of evidence.* 
For the other side, the propriety of the original report that 
Paul wrote the epistle appears upon a very slight con- 
sideration of the evidence that supports it. An example 
of obvious resemblance, both to the scope and style of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, is seen in the passage 2 Cor. hi. 7-18, 
wherein a comparison is made between the ministry of the 
law and of the gospel, and their respective glory ; and then, 
possessing such examples of argument and graphic power 
as the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, 
together with the Apostle's orations on special occasions, 
reported in the Acts, there are afforded grounds whereby 

* We have just discovered that, arguing this question in favour of 
Apollos, in above twenty pages of "How to Study the New Testament," 
Dr Alford asserts, " Nothing will induce me to acknowledge Paul for 
its author." — Again he says, " It has become the fashion among English 
upholders of its Pauline authorship to laugh to scorn this and every 
other attempt to decide the question on its own merits" (pages 90 and 
103). Of the existence of this bad fashion we were not before aware. 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 329 

to form a judgment on the case by comparison. Those 
examples afford coincidences of thought and treatment 
with the composition of the Epistle to the Hebrews which 
no other existing writings present; and, then, for coinci- 
dences as they relate to the situation of Paul, and to the 
personal notices in the epistle. Since he was sent away 
from Jerusalem (Acts ix. 30), he had always sought to 
bring the gospel before the Jews in their synagogues 
throughout Asia and Greece. From some of these he 
gathered disciples, but by the majorities his testimony had 
been rejected ; and now, his course being nearly run, it 
was natural that he who, in his love and grief, had pro- 
tested that he " wished himself accursed for the sake of his 
brethren according to the flesh," should be inspired to 
compose an argument especially adapted to awaken, to in- 
struct, and to exhort them concerning Christ and the 
doctrines of His gospel. The Epistle to the Hebrews is 
such a delivery. It possesses the dignity and solemnity of 
a prophet's address. It is a communication becoming the 
chosen vessel of Christ. As a composition, it combines the 
character of a treatise and a hortatory epistle. That it was 
primarily sent to "the mother of all Churches," the 
Christian community in Jerusalem, as it is the common 
conjecture, so it is the most probable one. How deeply in- 
terested Paul was in the members of that Church is seen in 
the solicitude with which he prosecuted the object of col- 
lecting for its poor, and the zeal which led him twice to 
convey the offerings to Jerusalem, persisting in taking the 
last journey thither, although warned that its completion 
would cost him his liberty. With the Church at Jerusalem 
he had long ago debated the subject of the freedom of be- 
lievers from the ceremonial law, upon the accession of 
Christ to a sole holy priesthood. He had received an inti- 
mation, from the lips of James, of the prejudices of the 
Jerusalem Jews against him as a preacher to the Gentiles 



330 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

(Acts xxi. 21) ; and as the head of the Churches of the 
circumcision, to no Church would such an epistle have been 
so appropriately directed as to the Church at Jerusalem. 
Other circumstances, which apply to no person but to Paul, 
and which therefore confirm his composition of the epistle, 
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are, that he speaks 
of his correspondents as having " had compassion on him 
in his bonds," probably when at Csesarea — an interesting 
particular, and one hitherto unnoticed (x. 34) ; that he 
writes, "The saints of Italy salute you," Paul being at 
Rome when the epistle was written (xiii. 24) ; and that he 
mentions Timothy, who was peculiarly his own minister. 
Some other coincidences might be traced, but surely these 
suffice for the argument. 

There remains no space here to observe upon the argu- 
ments of the epistle, and their accompanying illustrations, 
and pleadings, and warnings. The great design of this 
wonderful composition has only been very partially accom- 
plished. It possesses still its prophetic character. When the 
set time of a general awakening of the " dispersed Hebrews " 
shall come, then will its great value be discerned. In the 
meantime, to the Jew, touched by compunction for his dis- 
belief, and for the rejection of Christ by his fathers, this 
epistle serves as a light, like that which shone upon its 
writer at his own conversion, whilst to the Christ-minded 
Gentile it furnishes a sublime argument against any accept- 
ance of, and any trust in, an abolished ritualism. That 
the epistle was written before Paul's liberation appears 
from the request " Pray for us ; " "I beseech you the 
rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner" 
(xiii. 19). And that it was written after the epistles which 
have already been reviewed appears by the observation, 
" Know ye that brother Timothy is set at liberty, with 
whom, if I come shortly, I will see you ; " for there is no 
previous notice of Timothy having been in prison. 



LUKE'S RESIDENCE IN ROME. 331 

Some writers, pledged to an entire original Greek text of 
the New Testament Scriptures, persist that Paul wrote this 
epistle in Greek ; but did he address the Jewish multitude 
as he stood on the stairs leading to the Castle Antonia in 
Greek 1 (Acts xxii. ) ; and if in Hebrew, who translated 
his speech as it appears in the Acts but Luke ? Or, did 
Paul speak before the Jewish Council in Greek? (Acts 
xxiii.) And if upon those occasions he spake in the dialect of 
the Hebrews, is it reasonable to suppose that he wrote to 
them in another language than their own 1 

In attributing the translation of this epistle to Luke, it 
is a beautiful consideration that, besides having furnished 
his own quota to the code of the New Testament, he was 
led, by his companionship with Paul at Eome, to add this 
other service to the cause of Christianity. What a memor- 
able fraternity was that wherein the Jew Apostle and the 
Gentile Evangelist were united in an appeal, to be pro- 
tracted throughout all ages, inviting to the 

" Looking unto Jesus ! " — (xii. 2). 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE PUBLICATION OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 

By universal consent the volume of the Acts of the Apostles 
is said to have been published in Rome, soon after it was 
completed, which was perhaps twelve years after the former 
treatise. It may, therefore, be supposed that from notes 
which had been made during the entire period of the his- 
tory, it was composed at the interval of two years between 
the occurrence of the scene last reported therein and when 
the postscript was added. Speculations have been raised 
to account for the blank intervening in the narrative. 
Already it has been remarked (p. 301), that it would have 
been prejudicial to Paul's impending case, and also perilous 
to the Christians in Rome, to have divulged the particulars 
of his successful ministry there, reaching, as it did, to 
inmates of the imperial household. And then that Luke 
closed his history here, shows how strictly he kept within 
the limits of his plan. He had described the introduction 
of the gospel into place after place until he had arrived at 
what he regarded the geographical limit of Paul's ministry. 
His plan was accomplished ; and even Rome, the mistress 
of the world, allures his pen no further. 

Whether the title by which this book is called was given 
to it by Luke himself, is not known. It would appear 
from his own words, that he had named it his "Second 
Treatise" (logos), a title which is entirely adapted to its 
consecutiveness to his Gospel. The title which the book 
afterwards obtained was evidently derived from the Latin : 



PUBLICATION OF THE ACTS. 333 

acta having been the name usually given to annals, or jour- 
nals, by the Romans. It is, therefore, to be inferred, that 
the present title of the book first appeared in the Latin 
copies, and was thereafter adopted in the Oriental ones by 
the Greek rendering of praxeis, a word which conveys no 
allusion to the class of literature to which the book belongs, 
but only to the subject itself, while the Latin title does 
both. In the edition of the Latin vulgate, printed at Ant- 
werp by J. Tibald in 1526, a copy of which is in the hand 
of the writer of these pages, this suitable title is prefixed, 
11 The Acts of the Apostles, or Second Book of the Gospel accord- 
ing to St Luke, addressed to Theophilus" 

A translation of the book into Latin for the benefit of 
the Western Churches would soon have been made, and 
not improbably by Luke himself. And so, in this sense, 
the Roman Church may boast of its having been published 
here by its writer. 

The book completed, the first copy thereof, as in the 
case of the Gospel, and for the same intent, would have 
been despatched, according to the inscription which it bears, 
to Theophilus at Alexandria. A copy would have been 
sent to Timothy, that he might introduce it to the notice 
of the Churches in Proconsular Asia. Copies would also 
have been sent to the Churches to which the writer had 
been peculiarly allied ; to Philippi, to Corinth, to Antioch. 
But mark the incoherency of tradition. When Chrysostom, 
exercising his ministry at the latter city, delivered a course 
of lectures on this book, he declared, in commencing it, 
that a reason for the undertaking had been, that the know- 
ledge as to who was the writer of it had failed from the 
memory of the Church at Antioch. 

And then as to the character of the book, regarded as a 
specimen of ancient literature, this book possesses a remark- 
able character. The only books that preceded it, to which it 
can be compared, are the writings of Xenophon, concerning 



334 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

Cyrus the younger, in Greek, and Caesar's Commentaries in 
Latin. But it only resembles these in the respect of its 
being a narrative. Those writings relate the adventures of 
warriors. This book describes the progress of a reign of 
peace, announced by humble heralds, first in Palestine, and 
thereafter from province to province of the Roman empire, 
by ministers, of whom Paul was the chief. Xenophon, as 
a general, followed his hero to Persia. Luke, as a fellow- 
labourer, accompanied Paul to Italy. The style of this book 
is nicely adapted to its object. It is brief, often to 
severity, yet it is always perspicuous. It is full in all 
essential things ; often presenting pictures of great com- 
pleteness, yet is in no place diffuse ; and if the volume had 
been smaller, it would not have admitted those pictures ; if 
larger, it would not have corresponded with the writer's 
former treatise, or with the proportions of the other narra- 
tives in the New Testament. The design of this book is 
similar to that of the writer's Gospel. The Gospel relates to 
one person, the Lord Jesus. It describes the life and ministry 
of a spotless character. This book relates the ministry of 
several persons, being the disciples of Jesus, who had received 
a commission from Him to preach His gospel to the world, 
and also obtained strength and ability for their ministry from 
the Holy Ghost ; but who, holy and zealous as they were, 
nevertheless came short of the perfection of their Master. 
Like the report which Paul and Barnabas made to the Church 
at Antioch of their first missionary journey, this book pro- 
poses to afford a report of the acts of the Apostles, so far 
as the writer witnessed them, or obtained intelligence from 
those engaged in them, or was himself so engaged as a 
fellow-labourer. Its purpose was one that had relation 
both to the present and to the future, as much as did any 
of the other books of the Bible. The central position of the 
book in the series of New Testament Records is appropriate. 
It concludes the historical portion thereof; and preceding 



PUBLICATION OF THE ACTS. 335 

the epistolary part of it, it sheds a light upon both the 
sections. 

The acceptance of this book could not fail to have been 
welcome to the Churches that had received the writer's 
volume of the Gospel. Several of those Churches were 
immediately interested in it by reason of narratives con- 
tained therein which concerned themselves. And, to put 
the Churches in general in possession of a history of the 
introduction of the gospel into several places, and its pro- 
gress thereafter during thirty years, must have been to all 
as interesting as it was important. And so likewise to 
successive generations, to possess the notes of one of the 
witnesses of, and agents in, that wonderful work of regene- 
ration, is a rare advantage indeed. 

Of the benefits derived from the publication of this book, 
two of them especially are incalculable. In it the Churches 
of Christ possess a treasure of ecclesiastical history. This book 
is the only such history. Four are the Gospels ; but there 
is only one account of the Acts of the Apostles and dis- 
ciples succeeding those narratives. Herein, as in the 
Gospels, truth shines without alloy. The benefit of this 
record, in this respect, may be imagined, in some measure, 
by a thought of the consequence that would have ensued 
from its absence. Not that there would have remained 
altogether a blank in history concerning the period it 
embraces. Oh, no ! Ingenuity is prolific ; and the fabric 
of what is called tradition is often ingeniously woven like 
the lives and adventures of the oriental hermits. What 
thanksgivings, therefore, ought to pour from the truth-loving 
heart at the thought of having hereby been saved from an 
alternative of fables ! That this is no exaggerated expres- 
sion is proved at once by a reference to the histories that 
pretend to supplement this book. Secular history has not 
so many examples of writers of uncritical discernment and 
of credulous capacities as are found in history that is eccle- 



836 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

siastical. Credulity was that by which the latter class 
of writers in the early ages regarded the circumstances 
reported to them, and was also the poise of their judgment 
concerning them. In consulting the works of the fathers 
of Christian history, the first task of modern writers is to 
seek to separate the chaff from the wheat, the fable from 
the fact, as they lay commingled in their pages. 

The other important benefit of this book to be named 
here, is its practical significance. It is a history of the 
renewal of man by divine truth ; and, by a relation of how 
the truth was delivered, and how received, at the beginning, 
it serves to inform and instruct in points of paramount in- 
terest. It describes how the truth was delivered by ministers 
who had been instructed by Jesus Christ in person, and 
who had witnessed the facts concerning Him which formed 
the basis of their arguments, — how it was delivered with an 
accompaniment of power which Jesus had declared they 
should receive by the presence of the Holy Ghost with 
them and in them. The book shows how, in this power, 
the apostles and primitive disciples went forth and pulled 
down the strongholds of Satan, as at Philippi, Ephesus, and 
elsewhere. And a lesson conveyed by the record of their 
proceedings and successes is, that what was the power for 
this achievement then, must be the power for the same 
always. So that no agent can be a successful co-worker 
with God unless he has an endowment of " power from on 
high." 

And so likewise the relation made in this book of how 
the truth was received upon its first announcement, conveys 
a lesson of correlative importance. Great is the benefit of 
possessing, in the succession of pictures which this book 
affords, a palpable view of Christianity in its freshest 
aspect. Hereby Christians perceive what Christianity is 
in an embodied form. They behold in it the manner in 
which it was first taught and received. 



PUBLICATION OF THE ACTS. 337 

And another lesson conveyed by its details is, that, 
whether for the revival of communities, or the growth of 
piety in individuals, the same divine influence that accom- 
plished those results then, is requisite now and attainable 
now. Subsequent history has illustrated this. Revivals 
are seasons in which many are quickened. And the history 
of every revival since the Pentecostal one serves for a 
testimony of the Holy Spirit's presence and grace with the 
community in which a revival has occurred. 

And then, for the individual instances of conversion, and 
the subsequent piety of the converts herein recorded, these 
are produced for examples and incentives to subsequent 
ages. The conferment of large measures of grace should 
not be supposed to be confined to the period embraced in 
the pages of this book. Its pages are prophetic. There is 
no reason why the grace which then constituted the privi- 
lege and formed the believer's character, should not be 
bestowed as largely on believers now as then. The pro- 
mised grace extends to the believer's seed of all times. 
The divine gospel, in all its holy and elevating and saving 
character, still remains, like its Author, unchanged and 
unchangeable. The sacred books which reveal its doctrines 
have been transmitted, in their integrity, from age to age. 
And the effects upon the believing mind of their truths 
concerning the atoning death of Christ, and the justifying 
fruit of His resurrection, and their promises to the faithful, 
still continue, in all their primeval power, to cheer and to 
sanctify. Evidence of this has been under every eye. How 
many bright examples of piety are still witnessed ! How 
true it is that the holy character and tendency of the gospel is 
now as ever capable of being traced in the conduct of some 
of its professors ; in the sustaining power which it affords 
in seasons of tribulation, and in the triumphant testimony 
it enables the believer to bear in death ! 

But the benefit of the examples in this book are not 

Y 



338 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

limited to those only that are bright. Examples are given 
of defective Christians. These blot some of its earliest 
pages. Without a notice of these, the lessons to be con- 
veyed would have been incomplete. These are produced for 
warnings. The first two of these examples were of those who 
sinned through covetousness. Then there were Jews who, 
convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, nevertheless refused 
to relinquish ceremonials which were done away by Him. 
These troubled the Churches with their controversial 
speech and evil counsels. And there were converts from 
heathenism, who clave to indulgences forbidden to those 
called to walk in the purity of the gospel, and who rejected 
its restraining grace. Successors in the spirit of all these, 
with varying circumstances, have ever since afflicted the 
Church, fulfilling the word of Jesus concerning the growth 
of the tares beside the wheat, and also concerning the 
offences which must needs come. 

This book, then, is a book of historical precedents for the 
benefit of the Church in all times. Addressed to the same 
friend to Avhom the writer's Gospel had been dedicated, it was 
written with the same design, viz., that he might know the 
•certainty of those things that had transpired in the Church 
.since the conclusion of that record, — a design that was also 
prospective, having relation to every convert, at every 
future period of the Church's history. " It is," observes a 
judicious expositor, " an invincible demonstration of the 
truth of Christian faith ; for it confirms the truth concerning 
Christ's declaration, ' He that believeth on me, the works 
that I do shall he do also' (John xiv. 12) ; concerning His 
power, ' I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all 
your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay, nor resist ' 
(Luke xxi. 15) ; and concerning the truth of His promise, 
1 Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world' (Matt, xxviii. 20) " (Dr Whitby). 



CHAPTER XXX. 

LUKE THE LAST COMPANION OF ST PAUL. 

The last authentic notice that exists concerning Luke finds 
him still in company with Paul. This notice occurs in the 
Second Epistle to Timothy, being the sixth of Paul's epistles 
written at Rome, and the last of all his epistles. In a 
biographical respect, this epistle is of transcendent import- 
ance. "Without it the history of the last stage of the 
Apostle's life would have been left a blank, and no further 
intelligence would have been found relating to Luke, ex- 
cept what is told by tradition. As the Epistle to the He- 
brews may be regarded as Paul's legacy to his " brethren 
according to the flesh," so this was a legacy to his " dearly 
beloved son " (i. 1). The last letter of a beloved friend is 
always regarded with reverent interest ; and this letter, 
since it became the property of the Church of Christ, has 
been esteemed by its devout members as a precious memo- 
rial. It is not, however, to its aspect as containing the last 
testimony and advices of Paul to his beloved disciple, that 
attention is here directed, but only to the historical intelli- 
gence which it incidentally conveys. 

Foremost in the intelligence hereby obtained, is the fact 
(or strong supposition) that Paul was liberated after an 
imprisonment of two years, or somewhat longer. As his 
case had hitherto stood, it was reasonable to expect that 
when an imperial mandate should have been given for its 
adjudication, he would have been acquitted. Of any charge 
upon political grounds, Paul had been cleared by the judg- 



340 BIOGRA PH Y OF SA INT L UKE. 

ment of two successive governors of Palestine. His ac- 
cusers of the Sanhedrim seem not to have followed their case 
against him to Eome ; and if they had, perhaps the magis- 
trates here would have cared little more concerning it than 
did Gallio for the charges that were made against him at 
Corinth. That Paul had anticipated his release, is dis- 
cerned in passages of previous epistles. To the Philip- 
pians he had written, " Him " (Timothy) " I hope to send 
presently, so soon as I shall know how it will go with me. 
But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly " 
(ii. 23, 24). And to Philemon of Colosse he had written, 
" But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust, through 
your prayers, I shall be given unto you " (ver. 22). That 
these hopes were realised, appear from passages in the First 
Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus. In the 
former are the words, " As I besought thee to abide still at 
Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia ?' (i. 3). When Paul 
formerly left Ephesus to go to Macedonia is recorded Acts 
xx. i. It was when here, at that time, that he wrote the 
Second Epistle to the Corinthians ; but Timothy had not 
then been left at Ephesus, for he was joined with Paul in 
the address of that epistle. For this reason, following 
Bishop Pearson, Dr Paley places the date of the First Epistle 
to Timothy, and the journey represented in it, at a period 
subsequent to Paul's first imprisonment, and consequently 
subsequent to the era up to which the Acts of the Apostles 
is brought. Concerning the Epistle to Titus Dr Paley says, 
' 'There exists a visible affinity between it and the First 
Epistle to Timothy." And after quoting some examples 
hereof, he continues, " The most natural account which can 
be given of these resemblances is to suppose that the two 
epistles were written nearly at the same time, and while 
the same ideas and phrases dwelt in the writer's mind." 
For the same reason that Timothy had been left at Ephe- 
sus, Titus was left at Crete (i. 5). And as Paul was in 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PAUL. 841 

Macedonia when he wrote the First Epistle to Timothy, so 
likewise that he was there when he wrote the Epistle to 
Titus is rendered probable by the direction given to Titus, 
" When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychichus, be 
diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis, for I have deter- 
mined there to winter" (iii. 12). Naturally connected with 
that journey are the following passages in the Second 
Epistle to Timothy, written after Paul's return to Eome : — 
" The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou 
comest bring, and the books " (iv. 13). This must refer to 
a later occasion than the visit to Troas mentioned in the 
twentieth chapter of Acts, which was five years before the 
date of this epistle. " Erastus abode at Corinth " (when I 
recently left that city), " but Trophimus have I left at 
Miletus sick" (iv. 20). Trophimus was not left at Miletus 
upon Paul's former journey, but accompanied him to Jeru- 
salem (Acts xx.) 

" Upon the whole," concludes Dr Paley, " if we may be 
allowed to suppose that St Paul, after his liberation at Eome, 
sailed into Asia, taking Crete in his way; that from Asia and 
from Ephesus, the capital of that country, he proceeded 
to Macedonia, and crossing the peninsula in his progress, 
came into the neighbourhood of Nicopolis, we have a route 
which falls in with everything. It executes the intention 
expressed by the Apostle of visiting Colosse and Philippi 
as soon as he should be set at liberty at Eome. It allows 
him to leave Titus at Crete and Timothy at Ephesus, as he 
went to Macedonia ; and to write to both not long after 
from the peninsula of Greece, and probably the neighbour- 
hood of Nicopolis ; thus bringing together the dates of 
these two letters, and thereby accounting for that affinity 
between them, both in subject and language, which our re- 
marks have pointed out." 

In this exposition each chain in the evidence is derived 
from an authentic source. But, because in his Epistle to 



342 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

the Komans, written before his last journey to Jerusalem, 
Paul had intimated an intention, upon his way to Italy, to 
visit Spain, it is generally thought that, upon the occasion 
of his respite from prison, he accomplished a journey to 
that country. From Spain, limping tradition pretends to 
have conducted him through France to Britain, and here to 
have landed him on the coast of Hampshire, at a place since 
called ' Paul's Grove.' But it is not reported whether the 
old Paul's cross was subsequently erected to commemorate 
his visit to London. Probability is greatly against such a 
visit. In traversing France there were many more import- 
ant cities to invite his attention than any existing in 
Britain. And then, can it be supposed that " Paul the 
aged " would have been competent to undertake the fatigues 
of the journey hither, and the toil of the ministry attending 
the planting of the gospel there and here 1 * 

How long Paul remained at liberty, where and under 
what circumstances he was again apprehended, are points 
altogether unknown. His absence from Eome must have 
been of a much shorter period than the traditional accounts 
of his journey imply. 

The second committal of Paul to prison would not have 
arisen, it may be thought, from the instigation of Jews, 
but from an opposition to the doctrines of the gospel raised 
by the heathen. His case now, therefore, stood upon 
another ground; it bare the character of a prosecution 
promoted by the prejudices of Gentiles. 

Paul's situation was now different to what it had been 
formerly, when a prisoner in his own hired house ; and 
this Second Epistle to Timothy reflects the change. It com- 
mences with a note of sadness, "Mindful of thy tears" 

* In " An Argument on the Evidence in Favour of St Paul's having 
Visited Britain," by Ben. Saville, 1861, 12mo, there are adduced seven- 
teen authorities, as they are called, all of which are regarded as fur- 
nishing the soundest premises for the writer's positive conclusions. 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PAUL. 343 

(i. 4). Timothy would seem to have been acquainted with 
the fact of Paul's second imprisonment. It speaks mourn- 
fully of having been forsaken by former companions. 
With Paul's altered situation was likewise changed the 
conduct towards him of some of those who had formerly 
been his associates. While he might receive visitors, no 
man forbidding him the privilege, the shame of repairing 
to his teaching might be endured, and companionship with 
him might be maintained by some who had been enlight- 
ened by the gospel. But as prison doors now enclosed 
him, and permission of access to him had to be obtained 
from his keepers, and as thereby the applicant exposed 
himself to their observation, he had few visitors, and was 
forsaken by many that had formerly resorted to him. Of 
those who now forsook him, one is named, and the reason 
impelling his apostacy : " Denias hath forsaken me, having 
loved this present world, and has gone [returned] to Thessa- 
lonica." As Demas was coupled with Luke in the Epistle to 
Philemon, and is here said to have °one to Thessalonica, from 
whence Aristarchus had been deputed, it is to be inferred 
that he had succeeded that faithful minister in the capa- 
city of Paul's companion. The sorrow occasioned to Paul 
by this defection was heightened by the fact that a denial 
was hereby made by Demas of the efficacy of that grace 
which Paul in his ministry had declared to be sufficient to 
enable the believer to overcome every temptation. Against 
this instance of defection, two examples of fidelity are set 
clown in grateful terms. One of these faithful friends of 
the dear prisoner was Onesiphorus of Colosse. " The Lord 
give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he hath oft 
refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain ; but when 
he was in Eome he sought me out very diligently, and 
found me." The imprisoned seclusion of Paul is here 
plainly intimated, and the active sympathy of this friend 
is declared for an enduring memorial of him. 



344 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

The other example of fidelity to the imprisoned Apostle is 
that of his companion Luke. The Lord had appointed the 
apostles in couples : and the evangelists were sent forth two 
and two. Paul and Barnabas had laboured in company at 
Antioch, and upon their first missionary tour. By a gra- 
cious ordination, Paul had afterwards always companions, 
two or more, in fulfilling his wide-spread ministry. And 
when no longer an itinerant, but a prisoner, he still had 
his companions. But after this, his final imprisonment, 
they became reduced in number, until he had but one 
only. By the reservation of this one was the Lord's ordi- 
nation fulfilled in Paul's case to the last. 

How consistent with all his previous conduct is the 
situation in which the Evangelist is found upon the occa- 
sion of this, the last, notice of him in the sacred records ! 
These five words express the Apostle's mind : " Only Luke 
is with me." As Luke was intimately known to Timothy, 
nothing is said concerning him but what represents his 
constancy in the present exigence. These words seem to 
be an expression of mixed feelings. They seem to speak 
mournfully. The painful feeling of being forsaken by for- 
mer friends, and by a companion that had been deputed 
for the writer's solace by a Church justly devoted to him, 
had come upon him with fuller force from what he had 
just written concerning their defection. But having turned 
from his tablet, and glanced upon the benignant counte- 
nance of his friend, when resuming his pen, the words next 
written took the expression suggested by that glance, 
" Only Luke is with me." Moreover, these words, " only 
Luke is with me ! " seem also to utter the writer's grateful 
feeling towards this friend. They declare an appreciation 
of the fidelity of this companion. Here by his side was 
the friend who had grown venerable during his acquaint- 
ance with him ; who had forsaken every other connexion 
and pursuit, that he might devote himself to the solace of 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PAUL. 345 

the writer ; a friend who, since he had joined him in his 
last journey to Jerusalem, and during the whole of the 
writer's prison life, had stood fast by him; who had 
accompanied him from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and from 
Caesarea to Eome ; and who had promptly returned to his 
post upon the Apostle's renewed imprisonment. 

But the epistle reveals another piece of intelligence, 
whilst expressing another complaint. "At my first ap- 
pearance no man stood with me," or " assisted me " (as it is 
rendered in the Genevan version of 1557). So Paul had 
been brought before the imperial tribunal, where he had 
been left without the benefit of a legal witness or friend. 
Aristarchus had left Eome, Demas having succeeded him as 
the Apostle's companion. Yet as Luke was in Eome at 
the time, it may be asked, Why did he not stand by the 
Apostle? Upon this dilemma Charles Taylor observes, 
"No answer can be given to this question,' so rational or 
so effectual as the recollection that Luke was then eighty 
years old (more or less) — a time of life when many infirmi- 
ties become innocent causes of absence in such a case, and 
when the person can afford but little assistance at best." 
Moreover, perhaps, in tender consideration for the feelings 
of his venerable companion, Paul had himself prohibited 
his attendance with him upon the occasion. But the loss 
of human aid was above measure compensated by his Mas- 
ter's presence : " Notwithstanding, the Lord stood by me, 
and strengthened me." The Divine Advocate prompted 
the arguments of Paul's defence, which, like his defence 
before Festus and Agrippa, was conducted so that the 
Apostle's " preaching might be fully known, and that the 
Gentiles might hear." " And I was delivered," he adds, 
" from the mouth of the lion " — that is, from an instant 
condemnation. It is impossible to conceive what were the 
reasons which prevailed upon the inhuman judge to grant 
this respite. 



346 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

In the salutations of friends in Eome which are delivered 
to Timothy at the close of the epistle, four names are added 
to the list of those who would have been known to Luke. 
These are Eubulus, Pudens, Linus (the last being repre- 
sented by tradition as the first Bishop of Eome after St 
Peter), and Claudia. It may be amusing to argue, as is 
done in Dr Smith's large " Dictionary of the Bible," that 
the Pudens and Claudia here mentioned are the same 
whose nuptials the poet Martial has celebrated in his verse 
(iv. 13). The article reads pleasantly in the Dictionary. 
But surely the incongruity is inconceivable of the disciples 
of St Paul figuring in the page of a heathen poet, whose 
writings, unexpurgated, are not fit for perusal. Happily for 
the grace of consistency, the probability that the Pudens 
and Claudia mentioned here were identical with those per- 
sons bearing these names celebrated by Martial is subverted 
by the circumstance that the nuptial lines of the latter 
would have been composed some twenty, or perhaps thirty, 
years after the salutations were delivered by Paul, the poet 
having been only a youth when Paul wrote these names. 

At the commencement of the epistle, Paul expressed him- 
self as being "greatly desirous to see" Timothy (i. 4). 
And at its close he urges, "Do thy diligence to come 
shortly" (iv. 9). And repeatiug the request, he writes, 
" Do thy diligence to come before winter" for the reason 
that he might otherwise be delayed by the interruption of 
navigation. And having now another opinion of Mark 
than he had upon his first trial of him, for he had recently 
proved him as his minister in Rome, he directs, " Bring 
Mark with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry." 
So, notwithstanding his seclusion, the Apostle maintained 
a special ministry in Rome. Luke's inability for further 
active service, as well as a desire for their company, would 
make him anticipate with pleasure the arrival of those 
beloved Evangelists. 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PA UL. 347 

As this might prove the last opportunity of addressing 
his son in the gospel, the Apostle adds to his other advices 
a solemn charge. By Christians of the temper of those 
that had forsaken him in his extremity, a proper advice at 
this time would seem, " I warn you, my son, to be prudent ; 
avoid, as much as possible, exposing yourself to persecu- 
tion." Whereas, adopting the figure of a warfare conducted 
under the eye of Him who should judge him at His glorious 
appearing, he charges him, " But watch thou in all things, 
endure hardness, do the work of an evangelist, make full 
proof of thy ministry. " Timothy was not now a cadet in 
this service, he had already had a share in the battle, and 
he had suffered imprisonment likewise (Heb. xiii.) 

Hereupon the Apostle describes to Timothy his own 
attitude. He anticipates being added to the list of the 
cloud of witnesses for Christ, who through faith overcame. 
In the gaol at Philippi, with Silas for a companion, he had 
triumphed, singing psalms of prayer. And now, in a gaol 
at Rome, with Luke beside him, the great prompter of a 
realising faith awaits a different deliverance from the one 
then obtained. He announces, " For I am now ready to be 
offered, and the time of my departure is at hand ;" and 
with this prospect before him he dictates his own epicedium, 
in the divine words — 

" I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course, 
I have kept the faith : 
Henceforth there is laid up for me 
A crown of righteousness, 
Which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
Shall give me at that day ; 
And not to me only, 
But to all them also 
That love His appearing." 

—(2 Tim. iv. 6-8). 

In the benediction with which the epistle is concluded, 



348 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

" The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. 
Amen,'" Paul desires for Timothy that which had been 
the inspiration of all his own great activities formerly, and 
which was the source of his consolation at the present 
solemn interval. These are Paul's last written words ; and 
beautifully do they show how the principles of love and 
confidence towards his divine Master were maintained in 
him, and with undiminished vitality, to the threshold of 
the kingdom, a preparation for which had been the object 
of his converted life to urge upon all within his sphere. 

The six epistles whose historical particulars have now 
been reviewed, furnished (as it has already been observed) 
the only means whereby Luke's biography could have been 
followed during his residence in Rome, after the date of 
his postscript to the Acts of the Apostles. Of Paul's other 
epistles, six were written during his public ministry, 
and two during the interval of liberty obtained before his 
second imprisonment. So, having been present when the 
Epistle to the Romans was written in the house of Gaius, 
at Corinth, Luke had been associated with him upon the 
occasions of the composition of exactly half of his entire 
correspondence. Moreover, the paucity of information 
conveyed in these letters concerning this friend, serves 
further to illustrate his character. This reticence is in 
keeping with Luke's own productions, so scanty in allusions 
to himself. What must have been the influence of so close 
an intimacy with the Evangelist upon the mind of the 
writer of these epistles, and in what degree that mind was 
directed to its expression by this intimacy, can be but 
partially conceived ; but this is an interesting consideration 
here. It could not have been otherwise than that, in some 
measure, that mind was sustained by the presence, and 
took a hue from the fellowship, of the friend who was at 
once the writer's fellow-labourer, his domestic physician, 
and his constant— and, when the last of these letters was 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PAUL. 349 

written — his only attendant. By this review the thought 
is suggested, What an unutterable claim has this series of 
letters upon the reverential regard of every faithful heart ! 
This blessed prisoner had declared that his "bonds had 
turned out for the furtherance of the gospel ;" and this 
fact is attested besides by his preaching then, and by these 
letters now, whereby, " being dead, he yet speaketh." 

Descending from the date of this epistle, the importance 
of the sacred records for historical truth is again forced 
upon the student's observation. All that henceforth befel 
the Apostle is shrouded in uncertainty. Beyond the 
fulfilment of his expectation of being " offered up," no 
authentic particulars are known relating to the close of his 
life. And very perplexing is the diversity of dates quoted 
for the year of his death. By Eusebius it is set down as 
having occurred in the fourteenth year of Nero's reign, 
that is, a.d. 67. 

Towards an elucidation of the date of the Apostle's 
death, the first step consists of a consideration of certain 
prophetic declarations that were uttered concerning his 
ministry. To Ananias it was said, "He is chosen to bear 
my name before kings" (Acts ix. 15). In the prison at 
Jerusalem, it was said to himself by the divine Master, 
" Thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear 
■witness also at Rome " (xxiii. 1 1). And upon the voyage 
to Italy, during the tempest, the same voice declared, 
" Fear not, Paul : thou must be brought before Csesar " 
(xxvii. 24). There is no ambiguity in either of these 
declarations. And that they were severally and literally 
fulfilled must be admitted. Before the occurrence of the 
events, there appeared no probability that either of them 
would have happened. Every step of Paul's intended 
journey to Italy seemed adverse to his design. But that 
design being agreeable with the divine purpose also, all 
agencies were overruled for its accomplishment. His rescue 



350 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

from the murderous intentions of the Jews at Jerusalem, 
the protection afforded to him from their persevering 
machinations against him by the conduct of the governors 
at Caesarea, his transmission to Italy, his preservation 
from shipwreck, the good will of the officer by whom he 
was conducted, the report which that officer presented to 
the prefect of Home, and the consequent favourable view 
which the magistrate took of his case, and the respect which 
he showed for his personal comfort, were all links in the 
chain leading to a fulfilment of the last particular of those 
predictions, — namely, that the chief Apostle of the Gentiles 
should declare a testimony for Christ before CLesar, the 
chief of Gentile monarchs. 

The next step towards the elucidation sought, conducts 
to the pages of the historian which describe the situation 
of Caesar at the period of Paul's residence in Rome. From 
the relation of Tacitus, it appears that Nero was absent 
from Rome during the entire period of Paul's two years' 
imprisonment ; that to hide himself from observation he 
retired to the small island of Caprera, in the Bay of Naples, 
and that there, and with occasional visits to the continent, 
old as he was, he continued his diversions and the pursuit 
of " feats of blood." But that, at length, revisiting Rome, 
he betook himself in devotion to the Capitol. " Here," 
relates the historian, " while he was paying his oblations 
to the several deities, as he entered into the temple of 
Vesta, he was seized with a sudden horror, which shook 
him in all his joints, either from an awe of the goddess, or 
from the remembrance of his foulness and crimes." And 
the historian further relates, " To gain a reputation for 
delighting above all places in Rome, he banqueted 
frequently in public places and great squares, and used the 
whole city as his domicile." This, then, might have been 
the season in which Paul appeared before Caesar, and when 
he was " delivered from the mouth of the lion." And, 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PAUL. 351 

although history fails, the imagination may properly 
conceive how, upon the occasion of the fulfilment of his 
Master's word, Paul rose to the majesty of his situation, 
and that he delivered a testimony for Christ, at the hearing 
of which Nero was once more "seized with a sudden horror." 

Another clue to the discovery of the year of Paul's death 
is found in the next event recorded by Tacitus. He relates, 
" There followed a dreadful calamity, but whether merely 
fortuitous, or by the execrable contrivance of the prince, is 
not determined, for both are asserted ; but of all the evils 
that ever befel the city by the rage of fire, this was the 
most destructive and tragical." After telling that the fire 
was not stayed until the sixth day, and describing its effects, 
and the provision that was made for the people rendered 
houseless, and the devotions rendered to the gods, the his- 
torian concludes, " But not all the relief that could come 
from man, not all the bounties the prince could bestow, 
nor all the atonements which could be presented to the 
gods, availed to acquit Nero from the hideous charge, which 
was universally believed, that by him the conflagration was 
authorised. Hence, to suppress the prevailing rumour, he 
transferred the guilt upon fictitious criminals, and subjected 
to most exquisite tortures, and doomed to executions sin- 
gularly cruel, those people who, for their detestable crimes, 
were already in truth universally abhorred, and known to 
the vulgar by the name of Christians " (Book xv.) 

It cannot be thought that Paul survived that persecution. 
From the several pictures furnished by the historian, it is 
easy to perceive, that although Paul had escaped condem- 
nation at his appearance before Caesar, Nero now, mad- 
dened by malignity, was hurried for his private convenience 
to offer him a sacrifice to propitiate popular resentment. 
The language used by Tacitus concerning the Christians was 
the voice of the people. He says, " The founder of this 
name was Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, suffered 



352 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

death as a criminal under Pontius Pilate, and for a while 
the pestilent superstition was quelled, but revived again 
and spread, not only over Judea, where it was first preached, 
but even through Rome, the great gulph into which, from 
every quarter of the earth, there are torrents for ever flow- 
ing of all that is hideous and abominable." Nero, a pro- 
verb of vice, had withal his fits of devotion towards the 
gods. The virtue of the Christians availed nothing against 
the charge of pestilent superstition in contemning the vile 
idols of the Pantheon. So, the ground for the persecution 
of the saints by the " Mystical Babylon" was the same 
from the beginning, a pretence of upholding religion. 
Paul had wrestled against the principalities and powers of 
darkness in the metropolis of the world. His ministry 
had been successful. Having preached therein for two 
years, a knowledge of his doctrines had spread. He had 
become no insignificant person in Eome. The people and 
magistrates had awaked up to a sense of the might of this 
man and his doctrines. They perceived that those doc- 
trines were as inimical to their tenets as the Jews had 
regarded them to theirs. The same spirit animated the 
idolators at Kome that had prevailed against Paul at Ephe- 
sus, and similar would have been their cry, " Great are the 
gods of the Komans ! " It would have been observed that 
since the spread of Christianity thousands of persons coming 
from the provinces to the metropolis failed to visit the Pan- 
theon, and thousands to pass the costly statues of gods and 
heroes in public places without observing the accustomed 
reverence for them. The Emperor had made a pilgrimage 
of the shrines to prove his piety, and thereafter it would 
have been little to him to offer the sacrifice of Christian 
victims demanded by popular resentment. As the chief 
instigator of disaffection to the gods, Paul would have been 
the first against whom the executioner's sword would be 
turned. There now remained no more any appeal for him 



THE LAST COMPANION OF SAINT PA UL. 353 

to Caesar. Stephen had been the first martyr for Jesus 
Christ at Jerusalem. Between Paul's having witnessed the 
cruel death of that saint, and this moment, marvellous were 
the events he had beheld in his own conversion, and the 
conversion of multitudes by his laborious ministry. And 
now at length Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, became, 
perhaps, the protomartyr for Jesus Christ in Rome. His 
Master's word concerning him fulfilled, and his work done, 
he fell asleep. The great fire of Rome happened in the 
twelfth year of the reign of Nero, or A.D. 64. And if the 
persecution ensued in the same year, or at the commence- 
ment of the following year, it follows that the date of Paul's 
death was either at the close of A.D. 64, or in A.D. 65. 
There are only fanciful portraits of St Paul; but of the 
Caesar before whom he had been confronted the student 
may look upon the veritable likeness in the coins and 
medals executed in his reign, and in the marble bust in the 
Roman Gallery of the British Museum. The physiognomist 
will observe how the countenance of the saint's murderer 
coincides with his character as drawn by historians. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
luke's retirement from rome, and his death. 

After the affecting character of the last glimpse obtained 
of Luke, it cannot be doubted that he remained in Rome 
until after the martyrdom of Paul. As far as literature 
avails, there is only a step between that event and the death 
of Luke. Dim and contradictory are the notes of tradition 
concerning his situation in the interval. A consideration 
of the circumstances of the case might direct to the pro- 
bable course which he pursued. It is very unlikely, after 
his friend's martyrdom, and the object of his mission in 
Rome had thereby come to an end, that he would remain 
in a place that must have become a dangerous residence for 
him. He had quitted Jerusalem upon the occasion of the 
persecution that arose upon the martyrdom of Stephen, and 
he would now leave Rome upon the persecution that was raised 
against the saints in that city. A necessity for flight was as 
pressing now as then. The language of Tacitus, in speaking of 
the Christians, shows the light in which they were regarded 
by the heathen of whatever class. The prejudices of these 
were based on similar grounds with those which inspired 
the hatred of the Jews against them. Both alike disdained 
the lowly appearance of the Messiah, and for this reason, 
and for concomitant reasons, both persecuted His followers. 
Paul had said in his last letter to Timothy, " Wherein " 
(that is, in preaching the gospel) " I suffer as an evil- 
doer, even unto bonds ; but the Word of God is not bound." 



RETIREMENT FROM ROME, AND DEATH. 355 

His imprisonment had rather subserved to spread the know- 
ledge of the gospel. He that sitteth in the heavens knows 
how to make the wrath of man to praise Him ; and like as 
the persecution at Jerusalem sent forth missionaries for 
Christ on all sides, so also the persecution in Rome was fol- 
lowed by the same result. Both were ultimate triumphs 
for Christ. By the dispersion of the Christians from Rome, 
the knowledge of the gospel was conveyed to the provinces : 
forasmuch as from Rome likewise the disciples went every- 
where preaching the Word. 

It would be interesting to know who were the friends 
that accompanied the venerable confessor upon his retiring 
from the scene of his last ministry and companionship with 
his beloved fellow-labourer, and that conducted him to his 
proposed destination. Perhaps, being perilous times, they 
were afterwards of the number of those who obtained a 
martyr's crown. That upon quitting Rome, Luke returned 
to the East, would be supposed ; and with this agrees every 
early note concerning him. But accounts differ in repre- 
senting to which country he repaired. Some report that 
he returned to Greece. By some writers it is said that 
Luke retired to Bithynia. And Sixtus Senensis writes, " that 
having preached in all the regions of Alexandria and the 
Pentapolis, he died at Alexandria ,, (" Bibliotheca Sancta," 
p. 17). But that at the age of about eighty Luke should 
have gone to Egypt, is quite improbable, nor that he went 
to Bithynia are there any grounds to suppose. It is not 
seen that he had ever been there before, or that he had 
been nearer to that province than Troas. Achaia, on the 
contrary, has reasonable claims for the belief that it might 
have been the country to which he retired, and which be- 
came the last place of his residence. That peninsula was 
the nearest place to Italy with which he had been person- 
ally connected. And besides this, it had for him other 
advantages. At Corinth resided Christians to whose re- 



35G BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

gards he had been passionately recommended by Paul in 
the letter, which, along with fellow-delegates, he bare upon 
the subject of the alms-gathering for the poor saints of 
Judea. Here, after the arrival of the Apostle upon his last 
visit to Corinth, he had resided for some months. Here he 
had enjoyed fellowship with the members of that Church, 
and of other brethren who joined the Apostle's company 
upon that occasion, some of whose names appear at the 
close of the epistle which he addressed to the Romans from 
thence. Here, as it transpires in the Epistle to Timothy, 
recently written, Erastus still abode. It is refreshing to 
linger amidst these, the last associations of the Evangelist ; 
to think how he would have been received with open arms 
by a former companion who had been joined in the glowing 
commendations contained in the letter which they conveyed 
from Philippi. Here, too, perhaps, still abode Gaius, " the 
host of the whole Church." With sentiments similar to 
those with which the Christians regarded, as long as he 
survived, " the disciple whom Jesus loved," would the 
Christians of Corinth have regarded him who had been the 
constant companion of the Apostle of the Gentiles during 
his bonds, suffering for their sake. It is consistent with the 
principle of Christian love to conclude that he who had be- 
stowed so much solicitude for the solace of Christ's prisoner 
in Rome, should receive for a recompense the solace, in his 
retirement, of the Christians at Corinth. It pleased the 
divine Master that this companion of His servant should 
survive awhile, to exhibit in his person the example of the 
most aged disciple and teacher of His Word to be found in 
Greece. The advantage hereof is manifest. An aged saint 
is a monument of the divine faithfulness. The friends of 
this venerable confessor, who included all that had bene- 
fited by his publications and teaching, were by his presence 
and counsel confirmed in the truths which it had been the 
employment of his life to declare ; they were refreshed by 



RETIREMENT FROM ROME, AND DEATH. 357 

the manifestation of his unwavering confidence in the evi- 
dence and value of those truths, and by his profession of 
the sufficiency of the grace whereby he had been sustained 
throughout all his labours, and was still sustained. 

Eegrets are sometimes expressed that there are no 
authentic accounts of the closing scenes in the lives of the 
apostles and evangelists. Only the martyrdom of one 
apostle (James) is related in Scripture, and only an account 
of the martyrdom of one other saint, namely, Stephen the 
Deacon. May not the divine compassion for the frailty of 
human nature, in its regards towards benefactors and 
worthies deceased, account for the fewness of notices of 
this kind that are found in Holy Scripture ? And does 
not this paucity of intelligence concerning the death of the 
saints, whether under the old or the new covenant, serve 
to prompt a lesson ? As the only object of worship, it is 
infinitely proper that God should be jealous of His own 
glory. That God is thus jealous is, likewise, for the 
honour and happiness of man. And, therefore, the 
advantage is great of shutting out occasions for an undue 
exaltation of human agents, holy and excellent though 
they may have been. Apostles and evangelists lived for our 
benefit, but they did not die for us. Only One both lived 
and died for us. Of the life and death of this One, 
memoirs are given in four sacred documents. Attention 
is to be fixed on these. Accordingly, the subject of them, 
especially as it relates to the death and resurrection of 
Jesus Christ, formed the text of all the discourses of the 
apostles. And, as any preference given to Paul, or to 
Peter, or to Apollos, or to any of the saints, was repudiated 
by themselves when living, in jealousy for the honour of 
the Divine Dispenser of gifts to His servants, how great a 
wrong is done to their memory, when, being departed, any 
measure of duliation is bestowed upon them ! 

The legends which represent that Luke suffered a 



358 BIOGRA PHY OF S A INT L UKE. 

martyr's death may certainly be rejected, their accounts 
being alike contradictory one to another, and opposed 
to the earliest and most reliable authorities. But, 
that he died a natural death may be supposed upon the 
considerations of the quiet character of his ministry, the 
respect in which he would have been held as a physician, 
and the benefits of his professional skill to his neighbours. 
Each of these circumstances would hare been conducive to 
his security. Also, that his was a peaceable death is alike 
a thought pleasant to entertain, and conformable with his 
long-life sympathies with the many lovely characters and 
happy scenes depicted by his pen. Surely, there, in the 
chamber where lay that servant of Jesus, surrounded by 
the dimmed eyes of the friends of himself and of his divine 
Master, those angels were again present concerning whose 
visits to earth he had told the sweet stories in his books. 

That in his retirement Luke had pursued to the end of 
his life what had been his prime occupation since he was 
chosen into the service of his Lord, is represented in the 
following stanza, found written in the front of an ancient 
Latin copy of his Gospel : — 

" Lamp of the Chukch is the sacred name of Luke, 
An apostolic man, full of holy zeal. 
This Gospel, a sacred offering to God, 
He wrote, and spread throughout the Gentile world. 
Himself, through many bonds followed Paul : 
And after teaching in Achaia, he passed to high heaveu."* 
[Achaia is here substituted for Bithynia.] 

If, as it has been represented, Luke survived Paul two 
years, the time of his death was about A.D. 67 or 68. By 

* " Ecclesise Lampas sacer, Lie est nomine Lucas, 
Qui vir Apostolicus divine flamine plenus. 
Hoc Evangelium Domino tribuente sacratum 
Scripsit, et in totum sparsit Latinissime mundum. 
Ipse sequens, per plurima viucula Paulum; 
Bithnyaque docens, migravit ad arduum ccelum." 



RETIREMENT FROM ROME, AND DEATH. 359 

the Western Churches his anniversary is observed October 
18, and by the Orientals April 23. April 22 is marked 
in Latin necrologies as the anniversary of Lucius of 
Cijrene. Is not the contiguity of these two dates an 
indication of some confusion among the traditionists 1 
For the benefit of his credulous readers, Alban Butler, in 
his "Lives of Saints," relates, with a solemnity proper to 
real history, " Luke's bones were translated from Patras in 
Achaia, in 357, by order of Constantius " (so it was known 
where to find them more than two hundred and eighty 
years after their burial), "and deposited, together with those 
of St Andrew and Timothy, in a gold chest in the porch of 
St Sophia at Constantinople." He adds that "On the 
occasion of this translation, some distribution was made 
of the relics of Saint Luke. St Gaudentius procured part 
for his church at Brescia. St Paulinus possessed a portion 
in St Felix Church at No! a, and with a part enriched a 
church at Fondi. Baronius mentions that the head of St 
Luke .was brought by St Gregory from Constantinople to 
Rome, and put in the church of his monastery of St 
Andrew. Some of his relics are kept in the Greek 
monastery on Mount Athos in Greece." [Saint Luke's Day.] 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 

Having found that Lucius the Cyrenian, a teacher at 
Antioch, mentioned in Acts xiii. 1, was the Evangelist him- 
self, we have traced Luke from his native city to Jerusalem. 
We have seen him occupied there in fellowship with the 
infant Church, and in procuring materials for his Gospel. 
We have seen that, having by reason of persecution been 
driven from Jerusalem, he travelled to Antioch ; that he 
was there engaged in the important ministry of establishing 
the first Christian Church, derived directly from pagan 
ranks, and in furnishing the Churches raised throughout 
Syria and Asia Minor with a written Gospel. We have 
seen that, after having spent several years in Antioch, he 
went to Troas ; that he was one of the company of four 
missionaries who first brought the gospel to Europe ; that 
in Philippi he was occupied for several years in a ministry 
similar to that in which he had been engaged at Antioch, 
and in promoting the circulation of his Gospel in Greece ; 
that from Philippi he proceeded on a mission from the 
Churches of Macedonia to Corinth ; that after his visit to 
that city he returned to Philippi, from whence, by appoint- 
ment of the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia, he was 
united with St Paul in a deputation to Jerusalem. We 
have seen that St Paul, having been apprehended at 
Jerusalem, and sent to Caesarea, Luke accompanied him 
thither, and remained in that city during the two years of 
the Apostle's detention there. We have seen that, with 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 361 

St Paul, he suffered shipwreck at Malta; that he became 
a confessor by accepting companionship with him during 
the period of his imprisonment in Rome until the Apostle's 
death ; and that afterwards, returning from thence, he died 
in Greece. 

Although the character of Luke has been discovered in 
the several situations of his life as thus treated, it will be 
profitable to cast together a few of its prominent lineaments ; 
for by the extended view of his history which has been 
taken, the means are now at length afforded to obtain a 
commensurate knowledge thereof. It is character by which 
individuals are chiefly distinguished ; and it is the expres- 
sion thereof, unfolded in their conduct, which alone attracts 
and interests the sympathies of the observer. Instructive 
to the biographer is the observation by S. T. Coleridge, 
where he says : " The great end of biography is to fix the 
attention and interest the feelings on those qualities which 
have made a particular life worthy of being recorded'' 
(" The Friend"). And by Stanfield it is observed : " The 
effects produced by a life are exactly according to the 
nature and efficiency of the individual character" (" Essay," 
p. 275). 

1. In this glance attention is primarily directed to Luke's 
character as a ivriter of Holy Scripture. Cicero advises, " In 
every undertaking, the first thing to be done is to obtain 
the ability for its performance by a diligent preparation " 
(" De Officiis," 21). How Luke possessed this pre-requisite 
is manifest by the note prefixed to his Gospel, the several 
particulars of which have been reviewed in the sixth chapter 
while describing his Researches, and is also observable 
in the coincidences of the several situations in which he was 
found with the events of the Acts of the Apostles, which 
were evidently described from concurrent and preparatory 
notes. Another requisite for profitable writing is vividness 
of intellectual perception, described by Stanfield as "a pro- 



362 BIOGRA PHY OF SA INT L UKE. 

pensity innate or acquired— a faculty of seizing upon and 
receiving into the mind with efficacy and enjoyment 
everything that has relation to the favourite subject " 
(" Essay," p. 21). In what measure Luke possessed this 
faculty finds illustrations in every page of his writings. 
Of him it may be truly said, as it was of a celebrated 
Eoman, in the words of an author of transcendent powers 
of perception — 

" He was a great observer, and he looked 
Quite through the deeds of men." 

Besides these qualifications for literary undertakings, 
there must be possessed an ability to convey intelligence in a 
lucid and interesting manner. " Men of keen sensibility do 
not think differently from others ; but contemplating more 
ardently, they receive deeper impressions, and therefore are 
able, with more distinctness and animation, to delineate the 
objects which they present." It is by the measure of this 
realising ability that classes of writers are graduated. 
Luke's favourite pursuit was the knowledge of the facts 
relating to human redemption. The delight found in 
what he acquired of that knowledge impelled him to seek 
for an increase of it. And the joy at his discoveries both 
prompted him to communicate those discoveries, and 
enabled him to do so with commensurate vividness. Ideas 
obtain expression by words and sentences ; the words being 
chosen, and the sentences arranged, in a manner which 
shall most appropriately expound the writer's mind. This 
power does not consist in an affluence of words, but in a 
proper choice and happy combination of them. Words 
and sentences are to an emphatic writer what soldiers and 
battalions are to a skilful general. Here, as elsewhere, 
compactness of parts gives strength to the whole. Speak- 
ing of certain compositions, Charles Lamb said, " There is 
a New Testament plainness in them which affected me very 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 353 

much." Impressiveness consists with simplicity. Simple 
are the signs by which intellect may commune with intellect, 
especially by the Holy Spirit's promptings. Luke's writings 
speak to the student with the simplicity that his witnesses 
spake to him, and with the impressiveness. 

Whether he reports facts received from them, or those 
he had observed himself, his narratives partake the same 
realising distinctness by which the subjects of them had 
been first conceived. He sets the incidents and scenes of 
the gospel history and the Acts of the Apostles before us as 
he perceived them ; he introduces us to his acquaintances ; 
he conducts us with him on his journeys ; he causes us to 
see what he saw ; to hear what he heard ; to feel what he 
felt. To such a writer are the emphatic words applicable, 
" To be communicative of good is a royalty and a beam 
of glory " (Worthington's Life of Joseph Mede, prefixed to 
his Works, 1672). 

To account for this excellence in Luke's writings, it may 
be said that he was indebted for it to inspiration. But it 
must be observed that inspiration does not exempt the 
agent from the ordinary requirements of composition. As 
genius elevates to conceptions of the grand or the beauti- 
ful, so divine inspiration directs to what is truthful. It 
directs, sanctifies, and governs, but it does not change the 
3onstitutional powers and educational abilities of its subjects. 
It does not set aside their characteristics and endowments, 
natural or acquired. The prophets of the Old Testament, 
whether princes or shepherds, were by nature poets. In the 
case of the Apostle Paul, how conspicuously was observed 
in him his natural temperament, both in his conduct and 
writings. And in Peter, John, James, and each of the 
other writers of the New Testament Scriptures, the char- 
acter of their writings is as distinctive as were their person- 
ages and conduct. Yet they were all equally inspired to 
an utterance of what was infallible in argument or divine 



S6i BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

in instruction, and the Evangelists into a relation of what 
was essentially true as historians. 

By a certain class of writers, endeavours are made to dis- 
lodge Luke from his place in the sacred records. They 
allege that he has nowhere claimed to have been inspired. 
But neither does Mark, who, like him, was not an apostle, 
make that claim. Yet Luke includes himself in a list of 
prophets and teachers, and professes to have acted under 
inspiration upon an important occasion (Acts xiii. 1). Nor 
need the clamour raised against the authenticity of his 
books disturb the pious reader's conclusions concerning the 
evidence they perceive of their divine inspiration. Those 
conclusions are confirmed by their essential conformity 
with the writings of the other Evangelists, and with those 
of the apostles. It has been seen how that by St Paul he 
was recognised as a writer of a Gospel (2 Cor. viii. 18). 
His writings have been accepted with affectionate confi- 
dence by the faithful through successive ages, and as divine 
documents they have been conducive to the conversion of 
multitudes of readers, and to the edification of the Church, 
equally with the other writings of the New Testament. 
Only those who will accept no evidence will demand more 
than this. 

2. Luke's character teas simple. Character is read in the 
conduct of the individual, in the various situations and 
circumstances of his daily life, and prominently in those 
which are eventful, when the soul is exhibited through 
action. It has been said, "Man pursuing his objects, 
employed in acts of magnanimity and benevolence, glowing 
with elevated sentiments or encountering dangers and over- 
coming difficulties — a man thus highly engaged cannot be 
contemplated without communicating to the observer a 
sense of that spirit which influences him " (Stanfield's 
" Essay," p. ] 09). A leading quality observed in Luke's con- 
duct is simplicity. Christian simplicity is the reverse of 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 365 

weakness. It is a power. It sustains application, and it 
guides to the shortest and surest methods of attaining 
success in the object of its aim. It is contented with few 
objects, but upon these it concentrates its attention and 
care. It is called " singleness of heart," because it is an 
inward principle, its outward developments being candour 
and truthfulness. It is confiding towards those possessing 
its own character : these it is ready to believe, and to these 
to reveal. It is placid as a shaded streamlet, which no 
wind can reach, no storm can ruffle. It is steady in its 
course • it is always progressive, always persevering. That 
in Luke was observed this character appears in every page 
of his biography. In him simplicity was a reigning prin- 
ciple. Jesus was his copy. The person of Jesus was his 
religion (1 Pet. ii. 7) ; and his writings are both the proof 
and the fruits of the entireness of his accord with His meek 
disciples, being the result of an intercourse with them for 
nearly forty years. 

3. Luke's character was spiritual. It has been seen that 
Luke was an example of a convert at the eventful Pente- 
costal season. Although a Gentile, Luke had not been an 
idolator; nor yet as a proselyte had he been a Pharisee. 
No traces are detected in his writings of an inclination 
towards the carnality that belonged to these. His delight 
had been in studying the character and attributes of the 
Supreme Being, as they are unfolded in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, and also in the relation therein recorded of the 
divine providence towards the Church, in its beginnings 
and progress throughout all its preceding history. No 
wonder, then, with a temper so simple and habits so 
studious, that when the facts of human redemption by 
Jesus Christ were presented to his mind, their simplicity, 
along with the spirituality of the doctrines thereto belong- 
ing, commended the intelligence at once to his judgment 
and affections. And whereas the descriptions which he 



366 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

received concerning the intellectual character of Jesus, and 
the grace of His teaching, won his admiration, his conversion 
to Christ as the Saviour, amidst scenes of mysterious in- 
fluence, compulsory beyond any process of reasoning, would 
have confirmed and heightened his sympathies with the 
spiritual character of the new dispensation, of which he 
now witnessed the dawn. His disposition, and sympathy 
with the new dispensation, may be read in the circumstance 
that, of the eighty-six instances wherein mention is made 
of the Holy Ghost or Spirit in the New Testament, fifty- 
five of them are found in his two books. 

4. Luke's character was amiable. In Solomon's investiture 
of wisdom with personality, he represents that grace as 
" Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and saying, 
My delights are with the sons of men " (Prov. viii. 31). 
Like wisdom, an amiable character has an aspect towards 
those that are near, and its sympathies are towards all. 
By the amiable person a radiance is shed upon all within 
his sphere. But beyond the common walk of this un- 
common grace, this quality was enhanced in the person of 
Luke by a divine endowment. Having been baptized by 
the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon believers, he 
became possessed of a double share of this divine grace. 
His amiable disposition is seen in the choice which he 
made for the subject of his pen — that subject being no 
other than the Antitype of Solomon's prophetic personi- 
fication — a subject than which no writer except his co- 
evangelists ever had or will have its equal. 

The spirit and manner in which Luke accomplished his 
object, manifests the fellowship of his sympathies with its 
excellences; and that fellowship was equally shown in 
his account of the Acts of the Apostles — the ministry 
exercised by these being Christ's own cause. Luke's 
character, in its amiable aspect, is witnessed in the design 
contemplated by him in both his books, as it is declared in 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 367 

his letter to his friend Theophilus ; and it is shown in the 
manner in which that design is executed, Here the 
character of Luke is discovered as if portrayed by his own 
hand. It seems impossible to separate his own character 
from that of his work. 

This aspect of his character is seen in the delight that he 
takes in pleasing incidents, or in investing his incidents 
with some pleasing point or happy conclusion, even as a 
flower in a graceful hand seems the more beautiful. 

Predominant in an amiable disposition is cheerfulness. 
Upon the rejection of St Paul's testimony by the Jews at 
Home, he declared that he would turn to the Gentiles, and 
that they would receive it. And a bright example of a 
gladsome reception of the Gospel appears in Luke. This 
pleasing characteristic reigns throughout his writings. His 
first book opens with a scene tinted by the heraldic light 
of the morning star. It opens with the melody of angels 
beginning a new song upon earth, singing of " peace and 
good-will to men." It thereafter depicts the Eoyal Babe 
sanctifying the straw bed by its tender pressure. It 
exhibits the greeting given to the Infant by an aged saint 
who had waited for this " consolation," his hoary locks 
overshadowing the lovely Face as he stoops to welcome its 
advent with a holy kiss. Proceeding from Bethlehem, scene 
after scene, and incident after incident, are redolent with 
cheerfulness, and discover the amiable disposition of him who 
selected them, having received them from the lips of his 
witnesses, and arranged them in the order in which they 
are read. Upon the amiable character of Luke's Gospel, 
Oosterzee says, "In studying it, we are more attracted by the 
loveliness than even by the dignity of the Lord ; and the 
Holy One born of Mary appears before our eyes as the 
fairest of the children of men. Does it not even seem as if 
Luke had felt the necessity of transferring to his Master 
(the Lord) the very calling to which his own life had been 



3G3 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

hitherto devoted, while depicting to us far oftener than the 
other Evangelists the great Iatros, the Physician who 
came not only to minister, but who also went about doing 
good and healing (Acts x. 38), who felt compassion for all 
diseases, both of mind and body, and whose power was 
present to heal (Luke v. 17)." 

Disposition is affected by the individual's professional 
vocation. The physician is habitually devoted to an ame- 
lioration of the sufferings of humanity by disease. Partaking 
the same nature, and liable to disease alike with their 
patients, they are schooled in benevolence. His biography 
has shown how, with a physician's eye, Luke studied the life 
and miracles of Jesus, and how with a heart wherein the love 
of God was shed abroad, he delighted to record acts of the 
Saviour's compassion, whether exercised in removing the 
pains of the body, or the sorrows of the mind. That it 
should have been objected by the misanthropic detractor, 
that " Luke took pleasure in setting forth the conversion of 
sinners and the exaltation of the humble" (Benan), shows 
more clearly in what measure Luke possessed that tender- 
ness of feeling which deepens the fountain of friendship. 

But beyond the characteristics of the physician, Luke's 
Gospel also conveys sentiments of health and buoyancy. 
How many are its pages which seem to ring with cheer- 
fulness, and how many are its notes expressing joy and 
joyfulness, glad and gladness (his favourite words), whether 
in the communicator or the receiver ! In concluding the 
book, even the last adieus of the disciples with their Lord 
are represented, not as those with tears, but as " returning 
to Jerusalem with great joy" (xxiv. 52). 

And surely Luke described his own experience when he 
reports from the lips of Philip how the Eunuch went on his 
way rejoicing. Moreover, when subsequently seen in the 
exercise of his own ministry, conjoined with his company at 
Antioch, Barnabas, having gone thither and witnessed its 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 369 

fruits, was glad : and when by the Church there raised, 
sharing the grace of the Holy Spirit's presence and power, 
Antioch became at once an eminent station, from whence 
went forth the feet of them that conveyed the glad tidings 
of peace to the world. Gladsome, likewise, were the results 
which attended Luke's residence at Philippi, happy evi- 
dence of which is found in St Paul's commendations of the 
Philippians in his epistle addressed to that Church, the 
mo>t cheerful of all that Apostle's letters, and wherein he 
makes joy the key-note of the Christian life (iv. 4). 

And then as benevolence appertains to the amiable char- 
acter, the stamp of this grace also is set upon all Luke's 
writings. Of the expressions and deeds of compassion re- 
lated of Jesus in the Gospels, many of the most affecting of 
them are reported alone by his pen ! How like his Lord's 
was his own ministry in this respect ! The first instance of 
a public collection by a Church in Europe was that made 
by the Church at Antioch. And how zealously he had 
been engaged in promoting a similar object in Philippi, is 
witnessed by his having been chosen by the Churches of 
Macedonia and Achaia as a deputy to accompany St Paul 
with their alms to Jerusalem. 

5. Lul-e an examjjJe of a friend. Simple, spiritual, 
amiable, the individual possessing these attributes is 
susceptible of friendship in the highest degree and of the 
sublimest kind. 

Such a friendship is attractive. Cicero says, " Virtue," 
(by which he means every moral excellence), " wins and 
preserves friendship.'* The friend of high mark will 
possess merits indigenous to the individual, whereby a 
charm peculiar to himself will pervade his demeanour, 
vivifying every excellence with which he is endowed, and 
intensifying the appreciation of his character. "What was 
Luke's outward appearance is not in the least known. But 
that his character was in this manner attractive is certain 

2 A 



370 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

by an abundance of evidence. His associates were allured 
and edified by his devotion towards God, by his love of 
wisdom in its divinest relations, by his communication of 
the knowledge he had acquired, by a simplicity that 
chastens every excellence, a spirituality that improves 
every opportunity of intercourse, and an affability that 
invites to confidence. 

A friend is self-denying. The highest of all examples of 
friendship " pleased not Himself." Selfishness is dislodged 
by friendship. The wills of two friends become one will 
in whatever relates to the circumstances of friendship. 
Indeed, there is often more pleasure in concurring in the 
wish of a friend than in accomplishing one's own wish, 
which had otherwise gone in another direction. Of this 
self-sacrificing devotion to the claims of friendship, Luke's 
devotion of himself to the constraints endured during 
several years' companionship with the Lord's prisoner in 
bonds is perhaps an unparalleled example of self-denying 
friendship. In him was found a friend distinguished for 
a modesty that delighted in self-obscuration. 

Friendship is responsive. His praise having been in all 
the Churches, Luke is everywhere seen to be surrounded 
with friends. There had been in the beginning the Apostles 
and brethren with whom he was associated in Christian 
communion in Jerusalem. Afterwards it is seen, when 
occupying a more prominent station in the Church, how 
strongly Barnabas commended himself to his affections. 
Then there has been observed his friendship with Mark 
the Evangelist. Then there was Timothy, to whom Luke 
was first introduced at Troas, a young man loved and 
honoured as Paul's son in the gospel, who became his faith- 
ful fellow-labourer. At Philippi were added to the number 
of Luke's friends Lydia and her converted household, the 
first-fruits of the preaching of the gospel in Europe. At 
Corinth, Luke had for his friends Gaius and Erastus, men 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 371 

of renown in the Church and of standing in the city, with 
others whose names occur in his history. At Csesarea he 
obtained a renewal of his fellowship with Philip the 
Deacon. On his voyage to Italy, his friendship with Aris- 
tarchus, commenced in Macedonia, was cemented by their 
mutual peril, and by their joint-engagement as companions 
of the Apostle Paul. In Rome, the persons whose names 
occur in Paul's epistles written there as his fellow- 
labourers, or as messengers from different Churches, were 
all in the list of Luke's friends ; and above all was the 
friendship enjoyed by our Evangelist with the Apostle 
Paul himself, the character of which, as it has been pre- 
viously described, is resplendent in all their intercourse. 

How charming is the consideration that, under the 
Holy Spirit's providence, every reader of Luke's books is 
indebted for the pleasure and instruction derived from their 
perusal to Friendship ! 

Describing from an impression made upon him by a 
physiognomical scrutiny of a portrait of a person he had 
never seen, Lavater sketched his character in these words : 
" He loves tranquillity, order, and simple eloquence ; he 
takes a clear view of the subject he examines ; he thinks 
accurately; his mind rejects all that is false or obscure; he 
gives with a liberal hand; he forgives with a generous 
heart, and takes delight in serving his fellow-creatures. 
You may safely depend upon what he says or what he pro- 
mises. His sensibility never degenerates into weakness. 
He esteems worth, find it where he may. He is the honour 
of humanity, and of his station in life. Respected per- 
sonage ! I know you not, but you shall not escape me in 
the great day which shall collect us all together ; and your 
form, disengaged and purified from all earthly imperfection, 
shall appear to me, and catch my ravished eye in the midst 
of the myriads in the realms of light." How singularly ap- 
propriate are these words to represent in miniature the 



372 BIOGRAPHY OF SAINT LUKE. 

reader's friend, St Luke, and also to express the sentiment 
of the responsive heart towards him ! 

6. The influence of Luke's character. That involuntary and 
little thought of concomitant of human conduct, the in- 
fluence exerted by individuals upon others, is an important 
feature of every person's life. For good or for evil, this 
mysterious principle silently and surely works in and by 
every intelligent being. Renowned warriors, celebrated 
philosophers, eminent painters, and skilful craftsmen, of 
however remote a period, have all exerted a definite in- 
fluence upon successive aspirants in the several fields of 
emulation. It was this principle, in its moral potency, 
that our Lord touched when He declared concerning His dis- 
ciples, " Ye are the salt of the earth." In the Church, God 
has all sorts of saints. They are of different constitutional 
dispositions ; they are in different spheres, and have dif- 
ferent associates. In some the capacity is small, and the 
individual may be unconscious of possessing any influence, 
and therefore insensible of its obligations. As a pebble 
cast into the stream produces its little emotion of circles, so 
no intelligence, however tiny, is without its relative measure 
of influence in society. A little child was the favourite 
example set before His disciples by the Head of all influence 
in the Church ; and a recognition of this principle, in its 
minutest measure, was beautifully made when, upon the 
death of two of his children, the Reverend Samuel Reynolds, 
father of Sir Joshua, wrote, " I think with pleasure upon 
some of their actions, which our Saviour points out in 
children, and which it is always good to have before our 
eyes. They are little preachers of righteousness, which 
grown persons may listen to with pleasure. Actions are 
more powerful than words ; and I cannot but thank God, 
sometimes, for the benefit of their example." 

In its higher manifestations, the impress of a permanently 
salubrious influence upon other minds is the prerogative of 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 373 

superior intelligence and completeness of character. A per- 
son glowing with elevated sentiments, habitually developed 
by word and conduct, cannot live without communicating 
corresponding impressions. Luke's influence corresponded 
with his situation in the Church. In Jerusalem, the aversion 
of the Jewish mind to any foreign contact occasioned it to 
be limited while he resided in Jerusalem. But when from 
thence he repaired to Antioch, his influence was soon per- 
ceptible. It was seen in the success that attended the 
preaching of the gospel to the heathen by himself and his 
company. It was seen in the confirmation given, by their 
example, to the word spoken. It was seen in the " great 
number that believed and turned unto the Lord," where 
such a result had not been anticipated : Luke and his com- 
pany having been the first to witness the fulfilment of that 
word, "I am found of them that sought me not ;; (Isa. 
lxv. 1). 

But Luke's influence chiefly flows through his tvritings. 
Our Lord taught, saying, "So is the kingdom of God, as 
if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should 
sleep and wake night and day, and the seed should spring 
and grow up, he knoweth not how." Even so, Luke 
being absent from his readers, and personally unknown to 
most of them, yet by his narrative embued the Churches 
with a knowledge of those facts in detail which were pro- 
posed hi the discourses of the Apostles. How great was 
felt to have been the influence of the Evangelist through 
that publication is denoted by a testimony of St Paul. 
But when to that boon was added a second book, declaring 
the progress of a reception of the facts and doctrines of the 
gospel for nearly thirty years, by one familiar with the 
preachers, and who himself had had a share in the work of 
evangelisation, where are the words which had then ex- 
pressed the sense of the Churches' obligations to Luke as 
a writer of Holy Scripture ? And the influence upon those 



374 B10GRA PHY OF SA INT L VKE. 

who, through faith in the facts of his Gospel, became mem- 
bers of Christ's mystical body, is to be traced throughout the 
Church's history. Pleasing evidence remains in the pages 
of Irenseus, one of the earliest ecclesiastical writers, of the in- 
fluence of Luke's unique book, the Acts of the Apostles, whose 
testimony may be regarded as the voice of the Churches in 
general in the second century. Irenseus was a pupil of Poly- 
carp, a disciple of the Evangelist St John, and who suffered 
a martyr's death in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, the philo- 
sopher. Eegarding Luke's Gospel and Acts as statute-books, 
Irenseus says, " Possibly God has so ordered that many 
parts of the gospel should be declared to us by Luke ; which 
all are under a necessity of receiving: that so it might be 
received. And so likewise of his subsequent testimony, 
which he hath given concerning the acts and doctrines of 
the Apostles ; that by both they might possess a sincere and 
uncorrupted relation of truth, and be saved. Therefore his 
testimony is true, and the doctrine of the Apostles is mani- 
fest and uniform ; without any deceit ; hiding nothing from 
men; nor teaching one thing in private and another in 
public." 

Speaking of the traces of the Acts of the Apostles in 
the pages of Irenseus, Dr George Benson writes : — " I have, 
upon examination, found above thirty places in the works 
of that Father where the Book of Acts is quoted : in several 
of which Luke is named as the author, and the credit of 
the Evangelist and the usefulness of his writings is asserted 
and defended." And hereupon Dr Benson proffers these 
appropriate observations : — " We may, I think, very fairly 
and with great justness conclude, that if any history of 
former times deserves credit, the Acts of the Apostles 
ought to be received and credited. And if the history 
of the Acts be true, Christianity cannot be false. For a 
doctrine so good in itself, and attended with so many 
miraculous and divine testimonies, has all the possible 



A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE. 375 

marks of a divine revelation " (" First Planting of Chris- 
tianity "). 

As an evidence of the estimation in which this hook 
was held by the faithful of subsequent ages, the remark of 
Erasmus may be quoted, where he says, " he found more 
various readings in the Acts of the Apostles than in any 
other of the sacred books of the New Testament," — a 
certain proof of the frequency with which it was copied 
to supply demands for it. And, since the earlier ages, 
how inconceivably great has been the influence of Luke's 
books upon the minds of readers throughout successive 
generations, and among the peoples speaking the one 
hundred and eighty tongues into which the New Testa- 
ment has been translated ! 

" The force of Luke's unwearied zeal 
The saints still in his Gospel feel ; 
There Jesu's wonders brightly stand 
Recorded by his graphic hand." 

Bisliop Ken, a.d. 1700. 

There is felt the influence, with which every Christian con- 
gregation is familiar, by the celebration of the Advent of 
Christ, in lessons obtained from Luke's pages ; and there 
is the influence which is felt by the devout worshipper, 
in churches wherein, Sabbath after Sabbath, are chanted 
the hymns of Zacharias, Mary, and Simeon, and which 
inspired the bard of the " Christian Year " when he ad- 
dressed the Evangelist in the verse — 

" Thou hast an ear for angels' songs, 
A breath the gospel trump to fill ; 
And taught by thee, the Church prolongs 
Her hymns of high thanksgiving still." 



THE LAW OF TRUTH WAS IN HIS MOUTH, AND INIQUITY WAS NOT FOUND 
IN HIS LIPS : HE WALKED WITH ME IN PEACE AND UPRIGHTNESS, AND 
DID TURN MANY AWAY FROM INIQUITY." — McilacM. 

" HIS MEMORIAL SHALL NOT DEPART AWAY, AND HIS NAME SHALL LIVE 
FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION." — Son of Sirach. 



W&axkn h$ % same |attljar. 



§g i\i same §uttboi\ 



HUGUENOT HISTORY, 



i. 

Foolscap 8vo, price 4s., 

THE- WITNESSES IN SACKCLOTH. 

A Descriptive Account of the Attack made upon the Reformed 
Churches of France in the 17th Century. 

"The ' Witnesses in Sackcloth ' is a trenchant and earnest account 
of the attack made upon the Reformed Churches of France in the 17th 
century, with a bibliographical and literary Appendix, including notices 
of the subsequent history of the French Protestants. The writer is 
well versed in his subject. He writes with zeal, and even passion, but 
not offensively. Real earnestness breathes in every line — kindles the 
narrative — makes it picturesque, and sometimes eloquent." — A thenceum, 
Sept. 1852. 

" Here truth and error, with their respective subjects and advocates, 
are brought together, and the spirit of persecution is exhibited clothed 
in all its tragical horrors. The narrative is candid and awful, and such 
as suffices, indeed, to demonstrate the spirit of the Vatican." — (Dr John 
Campbell in) the Christian Witness. 

" We have read it with great interest. Much new light is thrown 
upon the history of the Huguenots. It cannot fail to become a popular 
work." — {Hugh Miller in) the Edinburgh Witness. 

" It is clear, copious, and lively. The Author is obviously quite 
at home on his subject. Some parts of the narrative are painfully 
romantic." — Scottish Guardian. 



"We announce this publication with lively satisfaction ; and recom- 
mend it to all who study our religious history. The Appendix consists 
of an alphabetical catalogue of books, and some manuscripts collected 
by the author, interspersed with numerous notes full of interesting 
citations, and recondite and useful information." — (C. Coquerel in) le 
Lien, Journal des Eglises Reformees de France : Paris, Avyust 1852. 



II. 

Foolscap 8vo, price 5s., 

The life of claude brousson, 

Doctor of Laws and Advocate of Parliament, afterwards Evan- 
gelist of the Desert and Martyr, a.d. 1698. 

" This volume is one of the most deeply-interesting publications of 
our day. Claude Brousson was a principal leader of that heroic band 
which, amidst incredible sufferings, and in the daily prospect of mar- 
tyrdom, upheld the doctrines of evangelical truth in France. Mr 
Baynes has been long engaged in tracing the career of Brousson, and 
the result of his inquiries is eminently adapted to raise our admiration 
of a man who combined intelligence with great legal knowledge, fear- 
less honesty, intense devotion, and the mildest charity. We cordially 
commend the memoir to the early acquaintance and confidence of our 
readers." — Eclectic Review, Jan. 1854. 

" The work is n'ot merely a biography, however interesting, but 
embraces, on an extensive scale, a history of transactions most nearly 
and feelingly connected with the records of purified Christianity in 
France. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, is generally 
regarded as a great event, reflecting extreme infamy upon the guilty 
authors, the Gallicau clergy of Rome in France. But with the con- 
tinuation of the career of savage and hypocritical persecution, onward 
to the beginning of the next century, almost universal ignorance pre- 



vails. This is remedied by the life of Brousson, which, founded as it 
is upon the most unquestionable and original authority, gives the 
work peculiar value." — The Rev. Joseph Mendham, A.M., Author of 
" The History of the Council of Trent" "Literary Policy of the Church 
of Rome" d-c. 

" The two volumes, sequent in subject as they are in appearance, 
constitute a trustworthy and popular guide for the English reader to 
the secret annals of the Protestant Church of France — one of the most 
romantic, and at the same time neglected episodes in European his- 
tory." — Athenceum, August 1S53. 



A NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 

In a Periodical boasting an immense circulation, it is related 
concerning Brousson, "the heroic pastor was condemned and hung;" 
and, illustrating the text, appears a fancy figure, at full length, of 
rueful features and hideous mien, as of a veritable malefactor. 
The figure is drawn with a rope round the neck, standing mid- 
way upon a ladder, and under it is inscribed "Claude Brousson!" 
{See Good Words, Jan. 1S68.) But the case was otherwise than there 
represented. Brousson v:as not hung. He was condemned to the 
rack, and afterwards to be broken on the wheel. He was bound to 
the rack, but its pains were remitted. The method of execution by 
the wheel consisted of the body being fastened on beams in the form 
of a St Andrew cross, let into grooves of a large wheel ; the wheel 
laying horizontally upon a scaffold, the limbs were broken by an iron 
bar. There is an instance of a martyr having received forty strokes 
in forty hours, before he received what was called the coup de grace 
{]\'itnesses in Sackcloth, ^>. S3). When Brousson had been bound to 
the wheel, orders were received to mitigate his sufferings by the sub- 
stitution of death by garrotting. Accordingly, as he lay bound, he 
was strangled, and after death his bones were broken by the bar. The 
scene and the martyr's conduct are described in his Life, pages 335-7. 



65 



4 
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18mo, price 6d., 

THE PROPHETIC SITE OF CALVARY 
SURVEYED. 

A Biblical Exercise Founded on Leviticus i. 10, 11, iv. 12, 
xiv. 1-7, xvi. 8-11, and 21. 

"Let him, then, who searches the Holy Scriptures only fairly make known 
his be^t apprehensions ; and let him be heard with patience ; and let Truth, that 
charming offspring of Eternal light, come forth, and be produced by those slow 
degrees, and by that process of inquiry, which the Divine Author hath ordained " 
—Edward King's " Morsels of Criticism." 

" Mr Baynes considers that he finds in the prophecies of the Old 
Testament, and the typical rites of the Jews, as well as in the words 
of the Evangelists, and in other sources, cogent reasons for concluding 
that Calvary was in an open place (not a mount) to the north of the 
city. . . . We do not mean to say that we see any very weighty or 
decisive reasons against such an opinion." — The Builder, Jan. 1858. 

" A painstaking attempt to decide, on Scripture data, a question 
which has much perplexed travellers and archaeologists." — Journal of 
Biblical Literature. 

" This little tract contains more than is promised by its title. It is 
a practical and suggestive discussion of the several points to be kept 
in view, and sets forth the main question at least lucidly and calmly." 
— Athenamm. 



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